Lambda as a Probe of Lensing Consistency

Abstract

We introduce a framework to identify the radial transition in mass reconstruction reliability between strong and weak gravitational lensing in galaxy clusters. In weak lensing reconstruction, the convergence recovered from the reduced shear is subject to the mass-sheet degeneracy. We demonstrate that the degeneracy itself can serve as an indicator of the reconstruction reliability, and introduce a spatially resolved parameter $λ(r)$ to characterize this as a function of radius. We validate this approach on simulated clusters with realistic observational noise, and show that $λ(r)$ naturally quantifies the relative reliability of the two probes. Furthermore, when the global mass-sheet parameter $λ$ is constrained directly using strong lensing information, the tightest constraints arise where the two probes achieve comparable precision. This provides a quantitative basis for joint strong and weak lensing mass reconstruction.