Strong Gravitational Lensing as a Probe of Gravity, Dark-Matter and Super-Massive Black Holes

White paper submitted to the 2010 Astronomy & Astrophysics Decadal Survey

ADS bibcode 2009arXiv0902.3186K
arXiv:0902.3186

L.V.E. Koopmans [1], M. Auger [2], M. Barnabe [1], A. Bolton [3], M. Bradac [2,4], L. Ciotti [5], A. Congdon [6], O. Czoske [1], S. Dye [7], A. Dutton [8], A. Eliasdottir [9], E. Evans [10], C.D. Fassnacht [4], N. Jackson [11], C. Keeton [12], J. Lazio [13], P. Marshall [2], M. Meneghetti [5], J. McKean [14], L. Moustakas [6], S. Myers [15], C. Nipoti [5], S. Suyu [16], G. van de Ven [17], S. Vegetti [1], J. Wambsganss [18], R. Webster [19], O. Wucknitz [16], H-S Zhao [20]

  1. Kapteyn
  2. UCSB
  3. IfA
  4. UCD
  5. Bologna
  6. JPL/Caltech
  7. Cardiff
  8. UCSC
  9. Princeton
  10. Cambridge
  11. JBO
  12. Rutgers
  13. NRL
  14. ASTRON
  15. NRAO
  16. Bonn
  17. IAS
  18. ARI Heidelberg
  19. Melbourne
  20. St. Andrews

Abstract

Whereas considerable effort has been afforded in understanding the properties of galaxies, a full physical picture, connecting their baryonic and dark-matter content, super-massive black holes, and (metric) theories of gravity, is still ill-defined. Strong gravitational lensing furnishes a powerful method to probe gravity in the central regions of galaxies. It can (1) provide a unique detection-channel of dark-matter substructure beyond the local galaxy group, (2) constrain dark-matter physics, complementary to direct-detection experiments, as well as metric theories of gravity, (3) probe central super-massive black holes, and (4) provide crucial insight into galaxy formation processes from the dark matter point of view, independently of the nature and state of dark matter. To seriously address the above questions, a considerable increase in the number of strong gravitational-lens systems is required. In the timeframe 2010-2020, a staged approach with radio (e.g. EVLA, e-MERLIN, LOFAR, SKA phase-I) and optical (e.g. LSST and JDEM) instruments can provide 10^(2-4) new lenses, and up to 10^(4-6) new lens systems from SKA/LSST/JDEM all-sky surveys around ~2020. Follow-up imaging of (radio) lenses is necessary with moderate ground/space-based optical-IR telescopes and with 30-50m telescopes for spectroscopy (e.g. TMT, GMT, ELT). To answer these fundamental questions through strong gravitational lensing, a strong investment in large radio and optical-IR facilities is therefore critical in the coming decade. In particular, only large-scale radio lens surveys (e.g. with SKA) provide the large numbers of high-resolution and high-fidelity images of lenses needed for SMBH and flux-ratio anomaly studies.


ADS bibcode 2009arXiv0902.3186K (link to ADS entry)
arXiv:0902.3186 (link to e-print archive)


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8 pages. astro-ph version


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