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Title: COSMOLOGY FROM GRAVITATIONAL LENS TIME DELAYS AND PLANCK DATA

Abstract

Under the assumption of a flat ΛCDM cosmology, recent data from the Planck satellite point toward a Hubble constant that is in tension with that measured by gravitational lens time delays and by the local distance ladder. Prosaically, this difference could arise from unknown systematic uncertainties in some of the measurements. More interestingly—if systematics were ruled out—resolving the tension would require a departure from the flat ΛCDM cosmology, introducing, for example, a modest amount of spatial curvature, or a non-trivial dark energy equation of state. To begin to address these issues, we present an analysis of the gravitational lens RXJ1131–1231 that is improved in one particular regard: we examine the issue of systematic error introduced by an assumed lens model density profile. We use more flexible gravitational lens models with baryonic and dark matter components, and find that the exquisite Hubble Space Telescope image with thousands of intensity pixels in the Einstein ring and the stellar velocity dispersion of the lens contain sufficient information to constrain these more flexible models. The total uncertainty on the time-delay distance is 6.6% for a single system. We proceed to combine our improved time-delay distance measurement with the WMAP9 and Planck posteriors. In anmore » open ΛCDM model, the data for RXJ1131–1231 in combination with Planck favor a flat universe with Ω{sub k}=0.00{sub −0.02}{sup +0.01} (68% credible interval (CI)). In a flat wCDM model, the combination of RXJ1131–1231 and Planck yields w=−1.52{sub −0.20}{sup +0.19} (68% CI)« less

Authors:
 [1]; ;  [2]; ;  [3]; ;  [4]; ;  [5]; ; ;  [6];  [7];  [8]
  1. Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica, P.O. Box 23-141, Taipei 10617, Taiwan (China)
  2. Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 (United States)
  3. Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 1, D-85748 Garching (Germany)
  4. Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA (United Kingdom)
  5. Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Stanford University, 452 Lomita Mall, Stanford, CA 94035 (United States)
  6. Laboratoire d'Astrophysique, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Observatoire de Sauverny, 1290-CH Versoix (Switzerland)
  7. Department of Physics, University of California, Davis, CA 95616 (United States)
  8. Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen, P.O. Box 800, 9700-AV Groningen (Netherlands)
Publication Date:
OSTI Identifier:
22365769
Resource Type:
Journal Article
Journal Name:
Astrophysical Journal Letters
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 788; Journal Issue: 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Journal ID: ISSN 2041-8205
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; BARYONS; COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT; COSMOLOGY; DATA ANALYSIS; DISTANCE; EQUATIONS OF STATE; ERRORS; GALAXIES; GRAVITATIONAL LENSES; IMAGES; NONLUMINOUS MATTER; SATELLITES; SPACE; TELESCOPES; TIME DELAY; UNIVERSE

Citation Formats

Suyu, S. H., Treu, T., Sonnenfeld, A., Hilbert, S., Spiniello, C., Auger, M. W., Collett, T., Blandford, R. D., Marshall, P. J., Courbin, F., Meylan, G., Tewes, M., Fassnacht, C. D., and Koopmans, L. V. E.,. COSMOLOGY FROM GRAVITATIONAL LENS TIME DELAYS AND PLANCK DATA. United States: N. p., 2014. Web. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/788/2/L35.
Suyu, S. H., Treu, T., Sonnenfeld, A., Hilbert, S., Spiniello, C., Auger, M. W., Collett, T., Blandford, R. D., Marshall, P. J., Courbin, F., Meylan, G., Tewes, M., Fassnacht, C. D., & Koopmans, L. V. E.,. COSMOLOGY FROM GRAVITATIONAL LENS TIME DELAYS AND PLANCK DATA. United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/788/2/L35
Suyu, S. H., Treu, T., Sonnenfeld, A., Hilbert, S., Spiniello, C., Auger, M. W., Collett, T., Blandford, R. D., Marshall, P. J., Courbin, F., Meylan, G., Tewes, M., Fassnacht, C. D., and Koopmans, L. V. E.,. 2014. "COSMOLOGY FROM GRAVITATIONAL LENS TIME DELAYS AND PLANCK DATA". United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/788/2/L35.
@article{osti_22365769,
title = {COSMOLOGY FROM GRAVITATIONAL LENS TIME DELAYS AND PLANCK DATA},
author = {Suyu, S. H. and Treu, T. and Sonnenfeld, A. and Hilbert, S. and Spiniello, C. and Auger, M. W. and Collett, T. and Blandford, R. D. and Marshall, P. J. and Courbin, F. and Meylan, G. and Tewes, M. and Fassnacht, C. D. and Koopmans, L. V. E.,},
abstractNote = {Under the assumption of a flat ΛCDM cosmology, recent data from the Planck satellite point toward a Hubble constant that is in tension with that measured by gravitational lens time delays and by the local distance ladder. Prosaically, this difference could arise from unknown systematic uncertainties in some of the measurements. More interestingly—if systematics were ruled out—resolving the tension would require a departure from the flat ΛCDM cosmology, introducing, for example, a modest amount of spatial curvature, or a non-trivial dark energy equation of state. To begin to address these issues, we present an analysis of the gravitational lens RXJ1131–1231 that is improved in one particular regard: we examine the issue of systematic error introduced by an assumed lens model density profile. We use more flexible gravitational lens models with baryonic and dark matter components, and find that the exquisite Hubble Space Telescope image with thousands of intensity pixels in the Einstein ring and the stellar velocity dispersion of the lens contain sufficient information to constrain these more flexible models. The total uncertainty on the time-delay distance is 6.6% for a single system. We proceed to combine our improved time-delay distance measurement with the WMAP9 and Planck posteriors. In an open ΛCDM model, the data for RXJ1131–1231 in combination with Planck favor a flat universe with Ω{sub k}=0.00{sub −0.02}{sup +0.01} (68% credible interval (CI)). In a flat wCDM model, the combination of RXJ1131–1231 and Planck yields w=−1.52{sub −0.20}{sup +0.19} (68% CI)},
doi = {10.1088/2041-8205/788/2/L35},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22365769}, journal = {Astrophysical Journal Letters},
issn = {2041-8205},
number = 2,
volume = 788,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Jun 20 00:00:00 EDT 2014},
month = {Fri Jun 20 00:00:00 EDT 2014}
}