Group items tagged

The most prolific lens search to date, the SLACS project involved high-resolution confirmation imaging of a very pure sample of lens candidates, selected for their anomalous SDSS double-galaxy spectra. (A)

LoCuSS is a large sample of nearby galaxy clusters with good weak lensing and X-ray measurements; Zhang, et al., use these clusters to investigate the agreement between mass estimates based on X-ray and weak lensing, and provide a good discussion of potential sources of errors in both of these methods.

Quiescent galaxies are more numerous sources, but are even fainter than quasars: it would take the advent of CCD imaging cameras to detect the first gravitational arc. It was not clear what the arc was: a deep spectrum revealed it to be a background galaxy, observed at high magnification through the lens. (A)

This presents a galaxy-galaxy lensing study using a database large enough to subdivide the foreground galaxy sample by various properties, and still obtain a high signal-to-noise measurement of the mass profiles. (A)

A study of galaxy-galaxy lensing using a 45 square degree imaging survey, including the first significant attempt to measure the shape of the dark-matter halo by rotating (as well as translating) the background galaxy positions and shears to a common reference frame. (A)

Results from the Great 10 challenge which includes variable shear and PSFs in the fields. (A)

Results from a public shear simulation challenge that was specifically targeted for participation outside the weak lensing astronomical community. Also includes a summary of the results from the previous shear measurement challenges. (A)