Cosmological Constraints from Strong Gravitational Lensing in Clusters of Galaxies
Publication date: 20 August 2010
Authors: Jullo, E., et al.
Journal: Science
Volume: 329
Issue: No. 5994
Page: 924-927
Year: 2010
Copyright: American Association for the Advancement of Science
Current efforts in observational cosmology are focused on characterizing the mass-energy content of the universe. We present results from a geometric test based on strong lensing in galaxy clusters. Based on Hubble Space Telescope images and extensive ground-based spectroscopic follow-up of the massive galaxy cluster Abell 1689, we used a parametric model to simultaneously constrain the cluster mass distribution and dark energy equation of state. Combining our cosmological constraints with those from X-ray clusters and the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe 5-year data gives Omegam = 0.25 ±0.05 and wx = -0.97 ±0.07, which are consistent with results from other methods. Inclusion of our method with all other available techniques brings down the current 2-sigma contours on the dark energy equation-of-state parameter wx by ~30%.
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