Strong Lensing In The Inner Halo Of Galaxy Clusters


Cristian Saez

We present an axially symmetric formula to calculate the probability of finding gravitational arcs in galaxy clusters, being induced by their massive dark matter haloes, as a function of clusters redshifts and virial masses. The formula includes the ellipticity of the clusters dark matter potential by using a pseudo-elliptical approximation. The probabilities are calculated and compared for two dark-matter halo profiles, the Navarro, Frenk and White (NFW) and the Non-Singular-Isothermal-Sphere (NSIS).We demonstrate the power of our formulation through a Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) test on the strong lensing statistics of an X-ray bright sample of low redshift Abell clusters. This KS test allows to establish limits on the values of the concentration parameter for the NFW profile and the core radius for the NSIS profile, which are related to the lowest cluster redshift where strong arcs can be observed. For NFW dark matter profiles, we infer cluster haloes with concentrations that are consistent to those predicted by LCDM simulations. As for NSIS dark matter profiles, we find only upper limits for the clusters core radii and thus do not rule out a purely SIS model.