The intrinsic alignment of galaxies and its impact on weak gravitational lensing in an era of precision cosmology

From MaRDI portal
Publication:516863

DOI10.1016/J.PHYSREP.2014.11.001zbMATH Open1357.85002arXiv1407.6990OpenAlexW3102350624MaRDI QIDQ516863FDOQ516863


Authors: M. A. Troxel, Mustapha Ishak Edit this on Wikidata


Publication date: 15 March 2017

Published in: Physics Reports (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: The wealth of incoming and future cosmological observations will allow us to map out the structure and evolution of the observable universe to an unprecedented level of precision. Among these observations is the weak gravitational lensing of galaxies, e.g., cosmic shear that measures the minute distortions of background galaxy images by intervening cosmic structure. Weak lensing and cosmic shear promise to be a powerful probe of astrophysics and cosmology, constraining models of dark energy, measuring the evolution of structure in the universe, and testing theories of gravity on cosmic scales. However, the intrinsic alignment of galaxies -- their shape and orientation before being lensed -- may pose a great challenge to the use of weak gravitational lensing as an accurate cosmological probe, and has been identified as one of the primary physical systematic biases in cosmic shear studies. Correlations between this intrinsic alignment and the lensing signal can persist even for large physical separations, and isolating the effect of intrinsic alignment from weak lensing is not trivial. A great deal of work in the last two decades has been devoted to understanding and characterizing this intrinsic alignment, which is also a direct and complementary probe of structure formation and evolution in its own right. In this review, we report in a systematic way the state of our understanding of the intrinsic alignment of galaxies, with a particular emphasis on its large-scale impact on weak lensing measurements and methods for its isolation or mitigation. (Abridged)


Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1407.6990




Recommendations




Cites Work


Cited In (19)

Uses Software





This page was built for publication: The intrinsic alignment of galaxies and its impact on weak gravitational lensing in an era of precision cosmology

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q516863)