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Weak Lensing Results from GEMS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2005

Catherine Heymans
Affiliation:
Max-Plank-Institut für Astronomie, Königsthul 17, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany.
Michael L. Brown
Affiliation:
Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ, UK.
Marco Barden
Affiliation:
Max-Plank-Institut für Astronomie, Königsthul 17, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany.
John A. R. Caldwell
Affiliation:
Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore MD, 21218, USA.
Knud Jahnke
Affiliation:
Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam, An der Stenwarte 16, 14482 Potsdam, Germany.
Hans-Walter Rix
Affiliation:
Max-Plank-Institut für Astronomie, Königsthul 17, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany.
Andy N. Taylor
Affiliation:
Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ, UK.
Steve Beckwith
Affiliation:
Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore MD, 21218, USA.
Eric Bell
Affiliation:
Max-Plank-Institut für Astronomie, Königsthul 17, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany.
Andrea Borch
Affiliation:
Max-Plank-Institut für Astronomie, Königsthul 17, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany.
Boris Häußler
Affiliation:
Max-Plank-Institut für Astronomie, Königsthul 17, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany.
Sharda Jogee
Affiliation:
Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore MD, 21218, USA.
Daniel H. McIntosh
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts, 710 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA 01003, USA.
Klaus Meisenheimer
Affiliation:
Max-Plank-Institut für Astronomie, Königsthul 17, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany.
Chen Peng
Affiliation:
Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 N. Cherry Ave., Tuscon AZ, 85721, USA.
Sebastian F. Sánchez
Affiliation:
Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam, An der Stenwarte 16, 14482 Potsdam, Germany.
Rachel Somerville
Affiliation:
Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore MD, 21218, USA.
Lutz Wisotzki
Affiliation:
Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam, An der Stenwarte 16, 14482 Potsdam, Germany.
Christian Wolf
Affiliation:
Department of Astrophysics, University of Oxford, Keble Road, Oxford, OX1 3RH, UK.
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Abstract

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We present our cosmic shear analysis of the Galaxy Evolution from Morphology and SEDs (GEMS) survey. Imaged with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on HST, GEMS provides high resolution imaging spanning some 800 square arcmins in the Chandra Deep Field South (CDFS). We discuss the benefits of using space-based data for weak lensing studies and show that the ACS is a very powerful instrument in this regard. We find that we are not limited by systematic errors arising from the anisotropic ACS point spread function distortion and use our cosmic shear results to place joint constraints on the matter density parameter $\Omega_m$ and the amplitude of the matter power spectrum $\sigma_8$, finding $\sigma_8(\Omega_m/0.3)^{0.62}=0.73 \pm 0.12$.

To investigate the impact of atmospheric seeing on weak lensing analysis we compare the shear measured from CDFS galaxies resolved by the COMBO-17 survey and imaged by GEMS. We find good agreement between the two surveys and a higher dispersion in the intrinsic ellipticity distribution of COMBO-17. This dispersion implies that a space-based cosmic shear analysis would yield higher signal-to-noise results compared to a ground-based cosmic shear analysis of the same galaxy sample.To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
© 2004 International Astronomical Union