Cosmological constraints from the double source plane lens SDSSJ0946+1006
Abstract
We present constraints on the equation of state of dark energy, w, and the total matter density, ΩM, derived from the double-source-plane strong lens SDSSJ0946+1006, the first cosmological measurement with a galaxy-scale double-source-plane lens. By modelling the primary lens with an elliptical power-law mass distribution, and including perturbative lensing by the first source, we are able to constrain the cosmological scaling factor in this system to be β-1 = 1.404 ± 0.016, which implies Ω M= 0.33_{-0.26}^{+0.33} for a flat Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) cosmology. Combining with a cosmic microwave background prior from Planck, we find w = -1.17^{+0.20}_{-0.21} assuming a flat wCDM cosmology. This inference shifts the posterior by 1σ and improves the precision by 30 per cent with respect to Planck alone, and demonstrates the utility of combining simple, galaxy-scale multiple-source-plane lenses with other cosmological probes to improve precision and test for residual systematic biases.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- September 2014
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnras/stu1190
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1403.5278
- Bibcode:
- 2014MNRAS.443..969C
- Keywords:
-
- gravitational lensing: strong;
- cosmological parameters;
- Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics;
- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
- E-Print:
- 9 Pages, 7 Figures. Updated version as published in MNRAS