| Issue |
A&A
Volume 507, Number 2, November IV 2009
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | 683 - 691 | |
| Section | Cosmology (including clusters of galaxies) | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/200912655 | |
| Published online | 24 September 2009 | |
CARS: The CFHTLS-Archive-Research Survey*
III. First detection of cosmic magnification in samples of normal high-z galaxies
1
Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, Niels Bohrweg 2, 2333CA Leiden, The Netherlands e-mail: hendrik@strw.leidenuniv.nl
2
University of British Columbia, Department of Physics and Astronomy, 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z1, Canada
3
Argelander-Institut für Astronomie, Auf dem Hügel 71, 53121 Bonn, Germany
Received:
8
June
2009
Accepted:
15
September
2009
Context. Weak gravitational lensing (WL) has been established as one of the most promising probes of cosmology. So far, most studies have exploited the shear effect of WL leading to coherent distortions of galaxy shapes. WL also introduces coherent magnifications.
Aims. We want to detect this cosmic magnification effect (coherent magnification by the large-scale structure of the Universe) in large samples of high-redshift galaxies selected from the Deep part of the Canada-France-Hawaii-Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS).
Methods. Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs) selected by their colours
to be at 
–5, are used as a background sample and are
cross-correlated to foreground lens galaxies, which are selected
by accurate photometric redshifts (photo-z's). The signals of
LBGs in different magnitude bins are compared to predictions from
WL theory. An optimally weighted correlation function is estimated
by taking into account the slope of external LBG luminosity
functions.
Results. For the first time, we detect cosmic magnification in a sample of normal galaxies. These background sources are also the ones with the highest redshifts so far used for WL measurements. The amplitude and angular dependence of the cross-correlation functions agree well with theoretical expectations and the lensing signal is detected with high significance. Avoiding low-redshift ranges in the foreground samples which might contaminate the LBG samples we can make a measurement that is virtually free of systematics. In particular, we detect an anti-correlation between faint LBGs and foreground galaxies which cannot be caused by redshift overlap.
Conclusions. Cross-correlating LBGs (and in future also photo-z selected galaxies) as background sources to well understood foreground samples based on accurate photo-z's will become a powerful cosmological probe in future large imaging surveys.
Key words: large-scale structure of Universe / cosmology: observations / dark matter / cosmological parameters
Based on observations obtained with MegaPrime/MegaCam, a joint project of CFHT and CEA/DAPNIA, at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) which is operated by the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada, the Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) of France, and the University of Hawaii. This work is based in part on data products produced at TERAPIX and the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre as part of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey, a collaborative project of NRC and CNRS.
© ESO, 2009
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