Combining weak and strong lensing in cluster potential reconstruction

¹ Dipartimento di Astronomia, Università di Bologna, via Ranzani 1, 40127 Bologna, Italy e-mail: marcello.cacciato@studio.unibo.it
² Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl  17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
³ Zentrum für Astronomie, ITA, Universität Heidelberg, Albert-Überle-Str. 2, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
⁴ INFN, Sezione di Bologna, Italy

Received: 24 November 2005
Accepted: 2 August 2006

Abstract

We propose a method for recovering the two-dimensional gravitational potential of galaxy clusters which combines data from weak and strong gravitational lensing. A first estimate of the potential from weak lensing is improved at the approximate locations of critical curves. The method can be fully linearised and does not rely on the existence and identification of multiple images. We use simulations to show that it recovers the surface-mass density profiles and distributions very accurately,even if critical curves are only partially known and if their location is realistically uncertain. We further describe how arcs at different redshifts can be combined, and how deviations from weak lensing can be included.