Measuring Cosmological Parameters with the JVAS and CLASS Gravitational Lens Surveys

Abstract

The JVAS (Jodrell Bank-VLA Astrometric Survey) and CLASS (Cosmic Lens All-Sky Survey) are well-defined surveys containing about ten thousand flat-spectrum radio sources. For many reasons, flat-spectrum radio sources are particularly well-suited as a population from which one can obtain unbiased samples of gravitational lenses. These are by far the largest gravitational (macro)lens surveys, and particular attention was paid to constructing a cleanly-defined sample for the survey itself and for the underlying luminosity function. Here we present the constraints on cosmological parameters, particularly the cosmological constant, derived from JVAS and combine them with constraints from optical gravitational lens surveys, `direct' measurements of $\Omega_{0}$, $H_{0}$ and the age of the universe, and constraints derived from CMB anisotropies, before putting this final result into the context of the latest results from other, independent cosmological tests.