Detection of weak gravitational lensing distortions of distant galaxies by cosmic dark matter at large scales

被引:465
作者
Wittman, DM [1 ]
Tyson, JA
Kirkman, D
Dell'Antonio, I
Bernstein, G
机构
[1] Bell Labs, Lucent Technol, Murray Hill, NJ 07574 USA
[2] Natl Opt Astron Observ, Kitt Peak Natl Observ, Tucson, AZ 85726 USA
[3] Univ Michigan, Dept Astron, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA
关键词
D O I
10.1038/35012001
中图分类号
O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];
学科分类号
07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;
摘要
Most of the matter in the Universe is not luminous, and can be observed only through its gravitational influence on the appearance of luminous matter. Weak gravitational lensing is a technique that uses the distortions of the images of distant galaxies as a tracer of dark matter: such distortions are induced as the light passes through large-scale distributions of dark matter in the foreground. The patterns of the induced distortions reflect the density of mass along the line of sight and its distribution, and the resulting 'cosmic shear' can be used to distinguish between alternative cosmologies. But previous attempts to measure this effect have been inconclusive. Here we report the detection of cosmic shear on angular scales of up to half a degree using 145,000 galaxies and along three separate lines of sight. We find that the dark matter is distributed in a manner consistent with either an open universe, or a flat universe that is dominated by a cosmological constant. Our results are inconsistent with the standard cold-dark-matter model.
引用
收藏
页码:143 / 148
页数:6
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