Co-evolution of galaxies and their dark matter environment: constraining the standard structure formation paradigm through simulation and analysis of galaxy-galaxy lensing

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Peter Schneider
• Subject Area: Astrophysics and Astronomy
• Term: from 2005 to 2012
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5449199

• Final Report Year: 2012

Final Report Abstract

We studied the propagation of light within one of the largest cosmological simulations, the Millennium Run, by performing ray-tracing. The main goal of the project was a quantitative investigation of galaxy-galaxy lensing and the dependence of the lensing signal on the properties of galaxies. For this purpose, the dark matter simulations were populated with semi-analytically modeled galaxies which allowed us to simulate the galaxy-galaxy lensing signal. Several results were derived, including that the mass profiles of galaxies, groups and clusters derived from these lensing simulations are in good agreement with observational results, and that the galaxy-galaxy lensing signal depends sensitively on the properties of the galaxy population, making it a sensitive probe of model assumptions and parameters. In addition, a large variety of additional results have been found, including new systematics in cosmic shear measurements, strong lensing optical depths, covariances of shear measurements, and the accuracy of the Born approximation. The results and methods of the project have led, and will continue to lead, to many spin-off projects.

Publications

• (2007). Imaging the cosmic matter distribution using gravitational lensing of pre-galactic H i. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 382(4), 1494-1502
  Hilbert, S., Metcalf, R.B. & White, S.D.M.
  
• (2007). Strong lensing optical depths in a ΛCDM universe. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 382(1), 121-132
  Hilbert, S., White, S.D.M., Hartlap, J. & Schneider, P.
  
• (2008). Strong-lensing optical depths in a ΛCDM universe–II. The influence of the stellar mass in galaxies. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 386(4), 1845-1854
  Hilbert, S., J., White, S.D.M., Hartlap, J. & Schneider, P.
  
• (2009). Cluster strong lensing in the Millennium simulation: the effect of galaxies and structures along the line-of-sight. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 398(3), 1298-1308
  Puchwein, E. & Hilbert, S.
  
• (2009): Ray-tracing through the Millennium Simulation: Born corrections and lens-lens coupling in cosmic shear and galaxy-galaxy lensing. In: A&A 499 (1), S. 31–43
  Hilbert, S., Hartlap, J., White, S.D.M. & Schneider, P.
  
• (2009): The non-Gaussianity of the cosmic shear likelihood or how odd is the Chandra Deep Field South? In: A&A 504 (3), S. 689–703
  Hartlap, J., Schrabback, T., Simon, P. & Schneider, P.
  
• (2010). Abundances, masses and weak-lensing mass profiles of galaxy clusters as a function of richness and luminosity in ΛCDM cosmologies. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 404(1), 486-501
  Hilbert, S. & White, S.D.M.
  
• (2010). Cosmology with the shear-peak statistics. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 402(2), 1049-1058
  Dietrich, J. P.; Hartlap, J.
  
• (2010). Dissecting the gravitational lens B1608+ 656. II. Precision measurements of the Hubble constant, spatial curvature, and the dark energy equation of state. The Astrophysical Journal, 711(1), 201
  Suyu, S.H., Marshall, P.J., Auger, M.W., Hilbert, S., Blandford, R.D., Koopmans, L.V.E., Fassnacht, C.D. & Treu, T.
  
• (2010). Evidence of the accelerated expansion of the Universe from weak lensing tomography with COSMOS. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 516, A63
  Schrabback, T., Hartlap, J., Joachimi, B. et al.
  
• (2010): A fitting formula for the non-Gaussian contribution to the lensing power spectrum covariance. In: A&A 514, A79
  Pielorz, J., Rödiger, J., Tereno, I. & Schneider, P.
  
• (2011): A bias in cosmic shear from galaxy selection: results from ray-tracing simulations. In: A&A 528, A51
  Hartlap, J., Hilbert, S., Schneider, P. & Hildebrandt, H.
  
• (2011): Cosmic shear covariance: the log-normal approximation. In: A&A 536, A85
  Hilbert, S., Hartlap, J. & Schneider, P.
  
• (2011): Probing the dark-matter halos of cluster galaxies with weak lensing. In: A&A 531, A169
  Pastor Mira, E., Hilbert, S., Hartlap, J. & Schneider, P.
  
• (2012). Galaxy-galaxy (-galaxy) lensing as a sensitive probe of galaxy evolution. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 547, A77
  Saghiha, H., Hilbert, S., Schneider, P. & Simon, P.