Cosmography with cluster strong lensing

Abstract

By stacking an ensemble of strong lensing clusters, we demonstrate the feasibility of placing constraints on the dark energy equation of state. This is achieved by using multiple images of sources at two or more distinct redshift planes. The sample of smooth clusters in our simulations is based on observations of massive clusters and the distribution of background galaxies is constructed using the Hubble Deep Field. Our source distribution reproduces the observed redshift distribution of multiply imaged sources in Abell 1689. The cosmology recovery depends on the number of image families with known spectroscopic redshifts and the number of stacked clusters. Our simulations suggest that constraints comparable to those derived from other competing established techniques on a constant dark energy equation of state can be obtained using 10 to 40 clusters with 5 or more families of multiple images. We have also studied the observational errors in the image redshifts and positions. We find that spectroscopic redshifts and high resolution {\it Hubble Space Telescope} images are required to eliminate confidence contour relaxation relative to the ideal case in our simulations. This suggests that the dark energy equation of state, and other cosmological parameters, can be constrained with existing {\it Hubble Space Telescope} images of lensing clusters coupled with dedicated ground-based arc spectroscopy.