Galaxy mass profiles from strong lensing II: The elliptical power-law model
File(s)2004.13435v2.pdf (2.06 MB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
O’Riordan, CM
Warren, SJ
Mortlock, DJ
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
We present a systematic analysis of the constraints σγ on the mass profile slope γ obtainable when fitting a singular power-law ellipsoid model to a typical strong lensing observation of an extended source. These results extend our previous analysis of circular systems, Paper I. We draw our results from 676 mock observations covering a range of image configurations, each created with a fixed signal to noise ratio S = 100 in the images. We analyse the results using a combination of theory and a simplified model which identifies the contribution to the constraints of the individual fluxes and positions in each of the lensed images. The main results are: 1. For any lens ellipticity, the constraints σγ for two image systems are well described by the results of Paper I, transformed to elliptical coordinates; 2. We derive an analytical expression for σγ for systems with the source aligned with the axis of the lens; 3. For both two-image systems and aligned systems, σγ is limited by the flux uncertainties; 4. The constraints for off-axis four-image systems are a factor of two to eight better, depending on source size, than for two-image systems, and improve with increasing lens ellipticity. We show that the constraints on γ in these systems derive from the complementary positional information of the images alone, without using flux. The complementarity improves as the offset of the source from the axis increases, such that the best constraints σγ < 0.01, for S = 100, occur when the source approaches the caustic.
Date Issued
2020-08
Date Acceptance
2020-06-11
Citation
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2020, 496 (3), pp.3424-3435
ISSN
0035-8711
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Start Page
3424
End Page
3435
Journal / Book Title
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume
496
Issue
3
Copyright Statement
© 2020 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society
This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model). This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in the Royal Astronomical Society following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version C M O’Riordan, S J Warren, D J Mortlock, Galaxy mass profiles from strong lensing II: The elliptical power-law model, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, , staa1697, https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa1697
This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model). This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in the Royal Astronomical Society following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version C M O’Riordan, S J Warren, D J Mortlock, Galaxy mass profiles from strong lensing II: The elliptical power-law model, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, , staa1697, https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa1697
Identifier
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/496/3/3424/5858002
Subjects
astro-ph.GA
astro-ph.GA
Astronomy & Astrophysics
0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences
Publication Status
Published online
Date Publish Online
2020-06-16