Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: I present within this dissertation my work in the field of weak gravitational lensing analysis of galaxy clusters, and the use of weak lensing shear for the constraint of cosmological parameters, with an emphasis on analysis and data reduction methodologies which yield science samples sufficient for the constraint of the dark energy equation of state (e.o.s.) parameter, w.This body of work includes the design and implementation of a weak lensing analysis pipeline suitable for Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) optical imaging data.Unfortunately, the narrow field of view of this instrument imposes several observational challenges for a weak lensing analysis; these are overcome by application of principal component analysis, and by coaddition of shear measurements from the many individual tile images which form the ACS mosaic.I also present the first attempt at dark energy constraint using tomographic weak lensing of such high-z clusters.The systematic errors of this tomographic weak lensing technique are explored using a set of simulated galaxy shear measurements.These simulations are designed to test the sensitivities of the tomographic weak lensing measurement to certain systematic errors which bias the cosmological constraint.
Author: Kellen Murphy
Institution: Ohio University
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2525044929