Open AccessThe statistics of weak lensing at small angular scales: probability distribution function
Author(s) -
Munshi Dipak,
Jain Bhuvnesh
Publication year - 2000
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.1365-8711.2000.03694.x
Subject(s) - physics , ansatz , smoothing , probability density function , weak gravitational lensing , statistical physics , redshift , probability distribution , spectral density , field (mathematics) , gravitational lens , convergence (economics) , astrophysics , statistics , galaxy , quantum mechanics , pure mathematics , economics , economic growth , mathematics
Weak gravitational lensing surveys have the potential to probe mass density fluctuation in the Universe directly. Recent studies have shown that it is possible to model the statistics of the convergence field at small angular scales by modelling the statistics of the underlying density field in the highly non‐linear regime. We propose a new method to model the complete probability distribution function of the convergence field as a function of smoothing angle and source redshift. The model relies on a hierarchical ansatz for the behaviour of higher order correlations of the density field. We compare our results with ray‐tracing simulations and find very good agreement over a range of smoothing angles. Whereas the density probability distribution function is not sensitive to the cosmological model, the probability distribution function for the convergence can be used to constrain both the power spectrum and cosmological parameters.