Year: 2004
Type: article
Abstract: We study the accuracy with which weak-lensing measurements could be made from a future space-based survey, predicting the subsequent precision of three-dimensional dark matter maps, projected two-dimensional dark matter maps, and mass-selected cluster catalogs. As a baseline, we use the instrumental specifications of the SuperNova / Acceleration Probe ( SNAP ) satellite. We first compute its sensitivity to weak lensing shear as a function of survey depth. Our predictions are based on detailed image simulations created using "shapelets," a complete and orthogonal parameterization of galaxy morphologies. We incorporate a realistic redshift distribution of source galaxies and calculate the average precision of photometric redshift recovery using the SNAP filter set to be Δ z = 0.034. The high density of background galaxies resolved in a wide space-based survey allows projected dark matter maps with an rms sensitivity of 3% shear in 1 arcmin 2 cells. This will be further improved using a proposed deep space-based survey, which will be able to detect isolated clusters using a three-dimensional lensing inversion technique with a 1 σ mass sensitivity of approximately 10 13 M ⊙ at z = 0.25. Weak-lensing measurements from space will thus be able to capture non-Gaussian features arising from gravitational instability and map out dark matter in the universe with unprecedented resolution.
Source: The Astronomical Journal
DOI: 10.1086/420985
Authors: Richard Massey, Jason Rhodes, Alexandre Refregier, Justin Albert, David Bacon, Gary Bernstein, Richard Ellis, Bhuvnesh Jain, Tim McKay, Saul Perlmutter, Andy Taylor
Institutions: California Institute of Technology, University of Cambridge, Goddard Space Flight Center, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives, CEA Paris-Saclay, University of Edinburgh, University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funder: Goddard Space Flight Center
OpenAlex ID: W2004568290