POWRE: Mapping Dark Matter in Superclusters of Galaxies

POWRE：绘制星系超星系团中的暗物质图

• 批准号: 9973461
• 负责人: Chung-Pei Ma
• 金额: $ 7.43万
• 依托单位: University of Pennsylvania
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1999
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1999-08-01 至 2002-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9973461&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: POWRE; Mapping; Dark; Matter; Superclusters

Abstract - Ma AST 9973461A concerted observational and theoretical effort to investigate the distribution of luminous and dark matter in superclusters of galaxies will be carried out. The studies of superclusters are of fundamental importance because they provide information about how light traces mass and how the mass-to-light ratio varies on the little explored distance scales of 10 Megaparsec and greater. Robust measurements of the mass-to-light ratio on such large scales are also more likely to give a representative value for the fundamental parameter, Omega, that is important in deducing the matter density of the universe. The technique of observing gravitational lensing effects may be used to study the distribution of matter in the Universe, and this research project will be one of the first attempts to apply the gravitational lensing method on supercluster scales.The research has three components: (1) Data acquisition via optical wavelength observations. In order to maximize the feasibility of detecting gravitational lensing signals, the 10-meter Keck telescope in Hawaii will be used to obtain high-quality images and spectra of two carefully chosen superclustering fields; (2) Data analysis of the observations in both the strong lensing (gravitational arcs) and weak lensing (correlated distortion in images of background galaxies) regimes will be used to construct the mass density maps; (3) A theoretical study of systematic effects and the dependence of lensing signatures on cosmological parameters will be carried out. Numerical simulations, on supercomputers, of various plausible cosmological models will be performed to quantify the level of contamination due to intervening mass fluctuations in the lower-density intra-cluster regions of superclusters. These numerical simulation results will be used to allow the statistically significance of the observational results to be assessed.

摘要- Ma AST 9973461将进行协调一致的观测和理论努力，以研究星系超星系团中发光物质和暗物质的分布。 对超星系团的研究具有根本的重要性，因为它们提供了关于光如何追踪质量以及质光比如何在10兆秒差距或更大的距离尺度上变化的信息。 在如此大的尺度上对质光比进行可靠的测量，也更有可能给出基本参数Ω的代表性值，这对推导宇宙的物质密度很重要。 观测引力透镜效应的技术可以用来研究宇宙中物质的分布，而本研究计划将是首次尝试将引力透镜方法应用于超星系团尺度的研究之一。为了最大限度地提高探测引力透镜信号的可行性，将利用位于夏威夷的10米Keck望远镜获得两个精心挑选的超星系团的高质量图像和光谱;（2）对强透镜和强透镜中的观测数据进行分析（引力弧）和弱透镜（背景星系图像中的相关失真）机制将用于绘制质量密度图;（3）将对系统效应和透镜特征对宇宙学参数的依赖性进行理论研究。 将在超级计算机上对各种合理的宇宙学模型进行数值模拟，以量化由于超星系团的低密度星系团内区域的质量波动而造成的污染水平。这些数值模拟结果将用于评估观察结果的统计学显著性。