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Ling-Mei Cheng

Publications and source records attributed to Ling-Mei Cheng.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

Constraining Dark Energy From Splitting Angle Statistic of Strong Gravitational Lenses

Utilizing the CLASS statistical sample, we investigate the constraint of the splitting angle statistic of strong gravitational lenses(SGL) on the equation-of-state parameter $w=p/ρ$ of the dark energy in the flat cold dark matter cosmology. Through the comoving number density of dark halos described by Press-Schechter theory, dark energy affects the efficiency with which dark-matter concentrations produce strong lensing signals. The constraints on both constant $w$ and time-varying $w(z)=w_0+w_az/(1+z)$ from the SGL splitting angle statistic are consistently obtained by adopting a two model combined mechanism of dark halo density profile matched at the mass scale $M_c$. Our main observations are: (a) the resulting model parameter $M_c$ is found to be $M_c \sim 1.4$ for both constant $w$ and time-varying $w(z)$, which is larger than $M_c \sim 1$ obtained in literatures; (b) the fitting results for the constant $w$ are found to be $w =-0.89^{+0.49}_{-0.26}$ and $w =-0.94^{+0.57}_{-0.16}$ for the source redshift distributions of the Gaussian models $g(z_s)$ and $g^c(z_s)$ respectively, which are consistent with the $Λ\rm CDM$ at 95% C.L; (c) the time-varying $w(z)$ is found to be for $σ_8 = 0.74$: $(M_c; w_0, w_a)=(1.36; -0.92, -1.31)$ and $(M_c; w_0, w_a)=(1.38; -0.89, -1.21)$ for $g(z_s)$ and $g^c(z_s)$ respectively.

astro-ph

Cross-correlation between the soft X-ray background and SZ Sky

While both X-ray emission and Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) temperature fluctuations are generated by the warm-hot gas in dark matter halos, the two observables have different dependence on the underlying physical properties, including the gas distribution. A cross-correlation between the soft X-ray background (SXRB) and the SZ sky may allow an additional probe on the distribution of warm-hot gas at intermediate angular scales and redshifts complementing studies involving clustering within SXRB and SZ separately. Using a halo approach, we investigate this cross-correlation analytically. The two contributions are correlated mildly with a correlation coefficient of $\sim0.3$, and this relatively low correlation presents a significant challenge for its detection. The correlation, at small angular scales, is affected by the presence of radiative cooling or preheating and provides a probe on the thermal history of the hot gas in dark halos. While the correlation remains undetectable with CMB data from the WMAP satellite and X-ray background data from existing catalogs, upcoming observations with CMB missions such as Planck, for the SZ side, and an improved X-ray map of the large scale structure, such as the one planned with DUET mission, may provide a first opportunity for a reliable detection of this cross-correlation.

astro-ph

Observational tests of the delta_c-M_vir relation in hierarchical clustering models

Observational determinations of the correlation between the characteristic density delta_c and the virial mass M_vir of dark halos constitute a critical test for models of hierarchical structure formation. Using the dynamical properties of dark halos reconstructed from the galaxy distributions in massive systems (groups/clusters) and the rotation curves in less massive systems (dwarf, low surface brightness and spiral galaxies) drawn from the literature, we confirm the existence of the delta_c-M_vir relation over a broad mass range from 10**10 to 10**15 solar masses, which is in gross consistency with the prediction of a flat cosmological model with Omega_M=0.3 and Omega_Lambda=0.7. It is pointed out that previous analyses based on the measurements of X-ray emitting gas and the hydrostatic equilibrium hypothesis, which claimed a shallower scale-free spectrum of n=-1 for initial density fluctuations, may suffer from nongravitational heating influence especially in low-mass systems.

astro-ph