Open AccessSelf‐consistent gravitational lens reconstruction
Author(s) -
Dye Simon,
Taylor Andy
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-8711.1998.02056.x
Subject(s) - physics , gravitational lens , magnification , gravitational lensing formalism , mass distribution , weak gravitational lensing , strong gravitational lensing , lens (geology) , cluster (spacecraft) , astrophysics , galaxy , gravitation , galaxy cluster , optics , astronomy , redshift , computer science , programming language
We present a new method for directly determining accurate, self‐consistent cluster lens mass and shear maps in the strong lensing regime from the magnification bias of background galaxies. The method relies upon pixellization of the surface mass density distribution which allows us to write down a simple, solvable set of equations. We also show how pixellization can be applied to methods of mass determination from measurements of shear and present a simplified method of application. The method is demonstrated with cluster models and applied to magnification data from the lensing cluster Abell 1689.