1,283 research outputs found
Towards an understanding of third-order galaxy-galaxy lensing
Third-order galaxy-galaxy lensing (G3L) is a next generation galaxy-galaxy
lensing technique that either measures the excess shear about lens pairs or the
excess shear-shear correlations about lenses. It is clear that these statistics
assess the three-point correlations between galaxy positions and projected
matter density. For future applications of these novel statistics, we aim at a
more intuitive understanding of G3L to isolate the main features that possibly
can be measured. We construct a toy model ("isolated lens model"; ILM) for the
distribution of galaxies and associated matter to determine the measured
quantities of the two G3L correlation functions and traditional galaxy-galaxy
lensing (GGL) in a simplified context. The ILM presumes single lens galaxies to
be embedded inside arbitrary matter haloes that, however, are statistically
independent ("isolated") from any other halo or lens position. In the ILM, the
average mass-to-galaxy number ratio of clusters of any size cannot change. GGL
and galaxy clustering alone cannot distinguish an ILM from any more complex
scenario. The lens-lens-shear correlator in combination with second-order
statistics enables us to detect deviations from a ILM, though. This can be
quantified by a difference signal defined in the paper. We demonstrate with the
ILM that this correlator picks up the excess matter distribution about galaxy
pairs inside clusters. The lens-shear-shear correlator is sensitive to
variations among matter haloes. In principle, it could be devised to constrain
the ellipticities of haloes, without the need for luminous tracers, or maybe
even random halo substructure. [Abridged]Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, accepted by A&A; some
"lens-shear-shear" were falsely "lens-lens-shear
Einstein metrics and the number of smooth structures on a four-manifold
We prove that for every natural number k there are simply connected
topological four-manifolds which have at leat k distinct smooth structures
supporting Einstein metrics, and also have infinitely many distinct smooth
structures not supporting Einstein metrics. Moreover, all these smooth
structures become diffeomorphic after connected sum with only one copy of the
complex projective plane. We prove that manifolds with these properties cover a
large geographical area.Comment: 23 page
Integral equations PS-3 and moduli of pants
More than a hundred years ago H.Poincare and V.A.Steklov considered a problem
for the Laplace equation with spectral parameter in the boundary conditions.
Today similar problems for two adjacent domains with the spectral parameter in
the conditions on the common boundary of the domains arises in a variety of
situations: in justification and optimization of domain decomposition method,
simple 2D models of oil extraction, (thermo)conductivity of composite
materials. Singular 1D integral Poincare-Steklov equation with spectral
parameter naturally emerges after reducing this 2D problem to the common
boundary of the domains. We present a constructive representation for the
eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of this integral equation in terms of moduli of
explicitly constructed pants, one of the simplest Riemann surfaces with
boundary. Essentially the solution of integral equation is reduced to the
solution of three transcendent equations with three unknown numbers, moduli of
pants. The discreet spectrum of the equation is related to certain surgery
procedure ('grafting') invented by B.Maskit (1969), D.Hejhal (1975) and
D.Sullivan- W.Thurston (1983).Comment: 27 pages, 13 figure
Radial Alignment in Simulated Clusters
Observational evidence for the radial alignment of satellites with their dark
matter host has been accumulating steadily in the past few years. The effect is
seen over a wide range of scales, from massive clusters of galaxies down to
galaxy-sized systems, yet the underlying physical mechanism has still not been
established. To this end, we have carried out a detailed analysis of the shapes
and orientations of dark matter substructures in high-resolution N-body
cosmological simulations. We find a strong tendency for radial alignment of the
substructure with its host halo: the distribution of halo major axes is very
anisotropic, with the majority pointing towards the center of mass of the host.
The alignment peaks once the sub-halo has passed the virial radius of the host
for the first time, but is not subsequently diluted, even after the halos have
gone through as many as four pericentric passages. This evidence points to the
existence of a very rapid dynamical mechanism acting on these systems and we
argue that tidal torquing throughout their orbits is the most likely candidate.Comment: v2: 13 pages, 10 figures, ApJ in press. Revisions include a new
section (4.2) comparing our results with observations, and a few added
reference
Combining cluster observables and stacked weak lensing to probe dark energy: Self-calibration of systematic uncertainties
We develop a new method of combining cluster observables (number counts and
cluster-cluster correlation functions) and stacked weak lensing signals of
background galaxy shapes, both of which are available in a wide-field optical
imaging survey. Assuming that the clusters have secure redshift estimates, we
show that the joint experiment enables a self-calibration of important
systematic errors including the source redshift uncertainty and the cluster
mass-observable relation, by adopting a single population of background source
galaxies for the lensing analysis. It allows us to use the relative strengths
of stacked lensing signals at different cluster redshifts for calibrating the
source redshift uncertainty, which in turn leads to accurate measurements of
the mean cluster mass in each bin. In addition, our formulation of stacked
lensing signals in Fourier space simplifies the Fisher matrix calculations, as
well as the marginalization over the cluster off-centering effect, the most
significant uncertainty in stacked lensing. We show that upcoming wide-field
surveys yield stringent constraints on cosmological parameters including dark
energy parameters, without any priors on nuisance parameters that model
systematic uncertainties. Specifically, the stacked lensing information
improves the dark energy FoM by a factor of 4, compared to that from the
cluster observables alone. The primordial non-Gaussianity parameter can also be
constrained with a level of f_NL~10. In this method, the mean source redshift
is well calibrated to an accuracy of 0.1 in redshift, and the mean cluster mass
in each bin to 5-10% accuracies, which demonstrates the success of the
self-calibration of systematic uncertainties from the joint experiment.
(Abridged)Comment: 29 pages, 17 figures, 6 tables, accepted for publication in Phys.
Rev.
Constraints on the shapes of galaxy dark matter haloes from weak gravitational lensing
We study the shapes of galaxy dark matter haloes by measuring the anisotropy
of the weak gravitational lensing signal around galaxies in the second
Red-sequence Cluster Survey (RCS2). We determine the average shear anisotropy
within the virial radius for three lens samples: all galaxies with
19<m_r'<21.5, and the `red' and `blue' samples, whose lensing signals are
dominated by massive low-redshift early-type and late-type galaxies,
respectively. To study the environmental dependence of the lensing signal, we
separate each lens sample into an isolated and clustered part and analyse them
separately. We also measure the azimuthal dependence of the distribution of
physically associated galaxies around the lens samples. We find that these
satellites preferentially reside near the major axis of the lenses, and
constrain the angle between the major axis of the lens and the average location
of the satellites to =43.7 deg +/- 0.3 deg for the `all' lenses,
=41.7 deg +/- 0.5 deg for the `red' lenses and =42.0 deg +/- 1.4
deg for the `blue' lenses. For the `all' sample, we find that the anisotropy of
the galaxy-mass cross-correlation function =0.23 +/- 0.12, providing
weak support for the view that the average galaxy is embedded in, and
preferentially aligned with, a triaxial dark matter halo. Assuming an
elliptical Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) profile, we find that the ratio of the
dark matter halo ellipticity and the galaxy ellipticity
f_h=e_h/e_g=1.50+1.03-1.01, which for a mean lens ellipticity of 0.25
corresponds to a projected halo ellipticity of e_h=0.38+0.26-0.25 if the halo
and the lens are perfectly aligned. For isolated galaxies of the `all' sample,
the average shear anisotropy increases to =0.51+0.26-0.25 and
f_h=4.73+2.17-2.05, whilst for clustered galaxies the signal is consistent with
zero. (abridged)Comment: 28 pages, 23 figues, accepted for publication in A&
Contending cultures of counterterrorism: transatlantic divergence or convergence?
Terrorist attacks on the United States, Spain and the United Kingdom have underlined the differing responses of Europe and the United States to the 'new terrorism'. This article analyses these responses through the prism of historically determined strategic cultures. For the last four years the United States has directed the full resources of a 'national security' approach towards this threat and has emphasized unilateralism. Europe, based on its own past experience of terrorism, has adopted a regulatory approach pursued through multilateralism. These divergences in transatlantic approaches, with potentially major implications for the future of the relationship, have appeared to be mitigated by a revised American strategy of counterterrorism that has emerged during 2005. However, this article contends that while strategic doctrines may change, the more immutable nature of strategic culture will make convergence difficult. This problem will be compounded by the fact that neither Europe nor America have yet addressed the deeper connections between terrorism and the process of globalization
Galaxy alignments: An overview
The alignments between galaxies, their underlying matter structures, and the
cosmic web constitute vital ingredients for a comprehensive understanding of
gravity, the nature of matter, and structure formation in the Universe. We
provide an overview on the state of the art in the study of these alignment
processes and their observational signatures, aimed at a non-specialist
audience. The development of the field over the past one hundred years is
briefly reviewed. We also discuss the impact of galaxy alignments on
measurements of weak gravitational lensing, and discuss avenues for making
theoretical and observational progress over the coming decade.Comment: 43 pages excl. references, 16 figures; minor changes to match version
published in Space Science Reviews; part of a topical volume on galaxy
alignments, with companion papers at arXiv:1504.05546 and arXiv:1504.0546
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