Strong Lensing by High-Redshift Red-Sequence Selected Galaxy Clusters

The statistics of giant arc formation by galaxy clusters has long held promise as a cosmological tool. Progress in this field relies upon advances in modeling, and in observational samples. We introduce several new lens samples from the Red-Sequence Cluster Survey (RCS-1) which provide a significant increase in the total sample of clusters with arcs, while adding several new observational puzzles. The most significant of these observations is that the redshift distribution of clusters which form arcs is unexpectedly skewed to higher redshifts. We also discuss upcoming samples from the ongoing RCS-2 survey and other planned surveys; preliminary results from RCS-2 support this unexpected redshift distribution and deepen the disagreement between theory and observations.