2002/09/30 by J. A. Tyson, J.A. Tyson, D. M. Wittman +5 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Cosmic microwave background #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark energy #Dark matter #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy cluster #Large Synoptic Survey Telescope #Mass distribution #Photometric redshift #Redshift #Sky #Weak gravitational lensing #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/s0920-5632(03)02073-5
9 pages, 6 figures, for Proc. 5th International UCLA Symposium on Sources and Detection of Dark Matter, Marina del Rey, February 2002, ed. D. Cline
arxiv created 2002/09/30 · openalex publication_date 2003/07/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The number of mass clusters and their distribution in redshift are very sensitive to the density of matter Omegam and the equation of state of dark energy w. Using weak lens gravitational tomography one can detect clusters of dark matter, weigh them, image their projected mass distribution, and determine their 3-D location. The degeneracy curve in the Omegam - w plane is nearly orthogonal to that from CMB or SN measurements. Thus, a combination of CMB data with weak lens tomography of clusters can yield precision measurements of Omegam and w, independently of the SN observations. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will repeatedly survey 30,000 square degrees of the sky in multiple wavelengths. LSST will create a 3-D tomographic assay of mass overdensities back to half the age of the universe by measuring the shear and color-redshift of billions of high redshift galaxies. By simultaneously measuring several functions of cosmic shear and mass cluster abundance, LSST will provide a number of independent constraints on the dark energy density and the equation of state.