5,275 research outputs found
An optimal filter for the detection of galaxy clusters through weak lensing
We construct a linear filter optimised for detecting dark-matter halos in
weak-lensing data. The filter assumes a mean radial profile of the halo shear
pattern and modifies that shape by the noise power spectrum. Aiming at
separating dark-matter halos from spurious peaks caused by large-scale
structure lensing, we model the noise as being composed of weak lensing by
large-scale structures and Poisson noise from random galaxy positions and
intrinsic ellipticities. Optimal filtering against the noise requires the
optimal filter scale to be smaller than typical halo sizes. Although a perfect
separation of halos from spurious large-scale structure peaks is strictly
impossible, we use numerical simulations to demonstrate that our filter
produces substantially more sensitive, reliable and stable results than the
conventionally used aperture-mass statistic.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, A&A submitte
The effects of primordial non-Gaussianity on giant-arc statistics
For over a decade, it has been debated whether the concordance LCDM model is
consistent with the observed abundance of giant arcs in clusters. While
previous theoretical studies have focused on properties of the lens and source
populations, as well as cosmological effects such as dark energy, the impact of
initial conditions on the giant-arc abundance is relatively unexplored. Here,
we quantify the impact of non-Gaussian initial conditions with the local
bispectrum shape on the predicted frequency of giant arcs. Using a
path-integral formulation of the excursion set formalism, we extend a
semi-analytic model for calculating halo concentrations to the case of
primordial non-Gaussianity, which may be useful for applications outside of
this work. We find that massive halos tend to collapse earlier in models with
positive f_NL, relative to the Gaussian case, leading to enhanced concentration
parameters. The converse is true for f_NL < 0. In addition to these effects,
which change the lensing cross sections, non-Gaussianity also modifies the
abundance of supercritical clusters available for lensing. These combined
effects work together to either enhance (f_NL > 0) or suppress (f_NL < 0) the
probability of giant-arc formation. Using the best value and 95% confidence
levels currently available from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, we
find that the giant-arc optical depth for sources at z_s~2 is enhanced by ~20%
and ~45% for f_NL = 32 and 74 respectively. In contrast, we calculate a
suppression of ~5% for f_NL = -10. These differences translate to similar
relative changes in the predicted all-sky number of giant arcs.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, accepted by MNRA
Comparison of an X-ray selected sample of massive lensing clusters with the MareNostrum Universe LCDM simulation
A long-standing problem of strong lensing by galaxy clusters regards the
observed high rate of giant gravitational arcs as compared to the predictions
in the framework of the "standard" cosmological model. Recently, few other
inconsistencies between theoretical expectations and observations have been
claimed which regard the large size of the Einstein rings and the high
concentrations of few clusters with strong lensing features. All of these
problems consistently indicate that observed galaxy clusters may be
gravitational lenses stronger than expected. We use clusters extracted from the
MareNostrum Universe to build up mock catalogs of galaxy clusters selected
through their X-ray flux. We use these objects to estimate the probability
distributions of lensing cross sections, Einstein rings, and concentrations for
the sample of 12 MACS clusters at presented in Ebeling et al. (2007)
and discussed in Zitrin et al. (2010). We find that simulated clusters produce
less arcs than observed clusters do. The medians of the
distributions of the Einstein ring sizes differ by between
simulations and observations. We estimate that, due to cluster triaxiality and
orientation biases affecting the lenses with the largest cross sections, the
concentrations of the individual MACS clusters inferred from the lensing
analysis should be up to a factor of larger than expected from the
CDM model. The arc statistics, the Einstein ring, and the
concentration problems in strong lensing clusters are mitigated but not solved
on the basis of our analysis. Nevertheless, due to the lack of redshifts for
most of the multiple image systems used for modeling the MACS clusters, the
results of this work will need to be verified with additional data. The
upcoming CLASH program will provide an ideal sample for extending our
comparison (abridged).Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication on A&
Strong lensing in the MareNostrum Universe: biases in the cluster lens population
Strong lensing is one of the most direct probes of the mass distribution in
the inner regions of galaxy clusters. It can be used to constrain the density
profiles and to measure the mass of the lenses. Moreover, the abundance of
strong lensing events can be used to constrain the structure formation and the
cosmological parameters through the so-called "arc-statistics" approach.
However, several issues related to the usage of strong lensing clusters in
cosmological applications are still controversial, leading to the suspect that
several biases may affect this very peculiar class of objects. With this study
we aim at better understanding the properties of galaxy clusters which can
potentially act as strong lenses. We do so by investigating the properties of a
large sample of galaxy clusters extracted from the N-body/hydrodynamical
simulation MareNostrum Universe. We explore the correlation between the cross
section for lensing and many properties of clusters, like the mass, the
three-dimensional and projected shapes, their concentrations, the X-ray
luminosity and the dynamical activity. We find that the probability of strong
alignments between the major axes of the lenses and the line of sight is a
growing function of the lensing cross section. In projection, the strong lenses
appear rounder within R200, but we find that their cores tend to be more
elliptical as the lensing cross section increases. We also find that the
cluster concentrations estimated from the projected density profiles tend to be
biased high. The X-ray luminosity of strong lensing clusters is higher than
that of normal lenses of similar mass and redshift. This is particular
significant for the least massive lenses. Finally, we find that the strongest
lenses generally exhibit an excess of kinetic energy within the virial radius,
indicating that they are more dynamically active than usual clusters.Comment: 22 pages, 18 figures, accepted for publication on A&
Code generator matrices as RNG conditioners
We quantify precisely the distribution of the output of a binary random
number generator (RNG) after conditioning with a binary linear code generator
matrix by showing the connection between the Walsh spectrum of the resulting
random variable and the weight distribution of the code. Previously known
bounds on the performance of linear binary codes as entropy extractors can be
derived by considering generator matrices as a selector of a subset of that
spectrum. We also extend this framework to the case of non-binary codes
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