Weak gravitational lensing by galaxies
- Los Almos National Laboratory, Theoretical Astrophysics (T6), Mississippi B288, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)
- California Institute of Technology, Theoretical Astrophysics 130-33, Pasadena, California 91125 (United States)
- The Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, California 91101 (United States)
We report a detection of weak, tangential distortion of the images of cosmologically distant, faint galaxies due to gravitational lensing by foreground galaxies. A mean image polarization of ({ital p})=0.011{plus_minus}0.006 (95{percent} confidence bounds) is obtained for 3202 pairs of source (23{lt}{ital r}{sub {ital s}}{le}24) and lens (20{le}{ital r}{sub {ital d}}{le}23) galaxies with projected separations of 5{double_prime}{le}{theta}{le}34{double_prime}. Averaged over annuli of inner radius 5{double_prime} and outer radius {theta}{sub max}, the signal is string for lens-source separations of {theta}{sub max}{approx_lt}90{double_prime} consistent with quasi-isothermal galaxy halos extending to large radii ({approx_gt}100{ital h}{sup {minus}1} kpc). The observed polarization is also consistent with the signal expected on the basis of simulations incorporating measured properties of local galaxies and modest extrapolations of the observed redshift distribution of faint galaxies (to which the results are somewhat sensitive). From the simulations we obtain formal best-fit model parameters for the dark halos of the lens galaxies that consist of a characteristic circular velocity of {ital V}{asterisk}{approximately}220{plus_minus}80 kms{sup {minus}1} and characteristic radial extent of {ital s}{asterisk}{approx_gt}100{ital h}{sup {minus}1} kpc. The predicted polarization based on the model is relatively insensitive to the characteristic radial extent of the halos, {ital s}{asterisk}, and very small halos ({ital s}{asterisk}{approximately}10{ital h}{sup {minus}1} kpc) are excluded only at the 2 {sigma} level. The formal best-fit halo parameters imply typical masses for the lens galaxies within a radius of 100{ital h}{sup -1} kpc on the order of 1.0{sup +1.2}{sub {minus}0.5}{times}10{sup 12} {ital h}{sup {minus}1}{ital M}{sub {circle_dot}} (90% confidence bounds), in agreement with recent dynamical estimates of the masses of local spiral galaxies.
- OSTI ID:
- 391664
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 466, Issue 2; Other Information: PBD: Aug 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
MACHO Alert 95-30: First real-time observation of extended source effects in gravitational microlensing
Discovery of A Very Bright, Strongly-Lensed z=2 Galaxy in the SDSS DR5