Affiliation
Univ Arizona, Dept PhysUniv Arizona, Dept Phys, Appl Math Program
Univ Arizona, Dept Astron
Issue Date
2018-05-24Keywords
galaxies: generaldistance scale
large-scale structure of Universe
cosmology: observations
cosmology: theory
Metadata
Show full item recordPublisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESSCitation
Kyle Leaf, Fulvio Melia; Model selection with strong-lensing systems, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 478, Issue 4, 21 August 2018, Pages 5104–5111, https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty1365Rights
© 2018 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.Collection Information
This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu.Abstract
In this paper, we use an unprecedentedly large sample (158) of confirmed strong lens systems for model selection, comparing five well-studied Friedmann–Robertson–Walker cosmologies: ΛCDM, wCDM (the standard model with a variable dark-energy equation of state), the Rh = ct universe, the (empty) Milne cosmology, and the classical Einstein-de Sitter (matter-dominated) universe. We first use these sources to optimize the parameters in the standard model and show that they are consistent with Planck, though the quality of the best fit is not satisfactory. We demonstrate that this is likely due to underreported errors, or to errors yet to be included in this kind of analysis. We suggest that the missing dispersion may be due to scatter about a pure single isothermal sphere (SIS) model that is often assumed for the mass distribution in these lenses. We then use the Bayes information criterion, with the inclusion of a suggested SIS dispersion, to calculate the relative likelihoods and ranking of these models, showing that Milne and Einstein-de Sitter are completely ruled out, while Rh = ct is preferred over ΛCDM/wCDM with a relative probability of ∼73percent versus ∼24percent. The recently reported sample of new strong lens candidates by the Dark Energy Survey, if confirmed, may be able to demonstrate which of these two models is favoured over the other at a level exceeding 3σ.ISSN
0035-87111365-2966
Version
Final accepted manuscriptSponsors
Chinese Academy of Sciences Visiting Professorships for Senior International Scientists under grant 2012T1J0011, Chinese State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs under grant GDJ20120491013Additional Links
https://arxiv.org/abs/1805.08640https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/478/4/5104/5003396
ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1093/mnras/sty1365