Related papers: An Upper Limit on Omega_matter Using Lensed Arcs
We consider the effect of three species of neutrinos with nearly degenerate mass on the cosmic structure formation in a low matter-density universe within a hierarchical clustering scenario with a flat initial perturbation spectrum. The…
We use semi-analytic modelling of the galaxy-cluster population and its strong lensing efficiency to explore how the expected abundance of large gravitational arcs on the sky depends on $\sigma_8$. Our models take all effects into account…
We study the arc statistics of gravitational lensing generated by dark matter halos in order to probe their density profile. We characterize the halo profile by two parameters, the inner slope of the central cusp $\alpha$, and the median…
A new X-ray selected and X-ray flux-limited galaxy cluster sample is presented. Based on the ROSAT All-Sky Survey the 63 brightest clusters with galactic latitude |bII| >= 20 deg and flux fx(0.1-2.4 keV) >= 2 * 10^{-11} ergs/s/cm^2 have…
Solar, atmospheric, and reactor neutrino experiments have confirmed neutrino oscillations, implying that neutrinos have non-zero mass, but without pinning down their absolute masses. While it is established that the effect of neutrinos on…
Two of the most sensitive probes of the large scale structure of the universe are the clustering of galaxies and the tangential shear of background galaxy shapes produced by those foreground galaxies, so-called galaxy-galaxy lensing.…
In most direct estimates of the mass density (visible or dark) of the Universe, a central input parameter is the luminosity density of the Universe. Here we consider the measurement of this luminosity density from red-shift surveys, as a…
We put robust upper limits on the average cosmological density \Omega_s of cosmic strings based on the variability properties of a large homogeneous sample of SDSS quasars. We search for an excess of characteristic variations of quasar…
We present a new test of gravitational interactions at the r\sim(0.2-20)Mpc scale, around the virial radius of dark matter halos measured through cluster-galaxy lensing of maxBCG clusters from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We employ…
We review recent advancements in cosmology with galaxy clusters. Galaxy clusters are the most massive objects in the Universe. Consequently the cluster number density as a function of cluster mass, or cluster abundance, is sensitive to…
Recent observations suggest that the ratio of the total density to the critical density of the universe, $\Omega_0$, is likely to be very close to one, with a significant proportion of this energy being in the form of a dark component with…
The large-scale dynamics of matter is inferred from the observed peculiar velocities of galaxies via the POTENT procedure. The smoothed fields of velocity and mass-density fluctuations are recovered from the current data of about 3000…
Clusters of galaxies offer a robust test bed for probing the nature of dark matter that is insensitive to the assumption of the gravity theories. Both Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) and General Relativity (GR) would require similar…
We constrain Omega_m through a maximum likelihood analysis of temperatures and redshifts of the high-redshift clusters from the EMSS. We simultaneously fit the low-redshift Markevitch (1998) sample (an all-sky sample from ROSAT with z=0.04-…
The CNOC1 cluster survey measures Omega_M via Oort's method, Omega_M= M/L x j/rho_c, where M/L is the field mass-to-light ratio, j is the field luminosity density and rho_c is the closure density. A wide range of potential systematic…
Via the magnification bias, gravitational lensing by large-scale structures causes angular cross-correlations between distant quasars and foreground galaxies on angular scales of arc minutes and above. We investigate the three-point…
We calculate the all-sky number of galaxy clusters that are expected to be gravitationally lensed by foreground massive clusters. We describe the redshift and number distributions of clusters using a Press-Schechter analysis, and model the…
Wide-separation lensed QSOs measure the mass function and evolution of massive galaxy clusters, in a similar way to the cluster mass function deduced from X-ray-selected samples or statistical measurements of the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect.…
Galaxy-scale strong gravitational lenses with measured stellar velocity dispersions allow a test of the weak-field metric on kiloparsec scales and a geometric measurement of the cosmological distance-redshift relation, provided that the…
We calculate the angular cross-correlation function between background QSOs and foreground galaxies induced by the weak lensing effect of large-scale structures. Results are given for arbitrary Friedmann-Lemaitre cosmologies. The non-linear…