No abstract

Strong lensing has developed into an important astrophysical tool for probing both cosmology and galaxies (their structure, formation, and evolution). Using the gravitational lensing theory and cluster mass distribution model, we try to collect a relatively complete observational data concerning the Hubble constant independent ratio between two angular diameter distances D ds /D s from various large systematic gravitational lens surveys and lensing by galaxy clusters combined with X-ray observations, and check the possibility to use it in the future as complementary to other cosmological probes. On one hand, strongly gravitationally lensed quasar-galaxy systems create such a new opportunity by combining stellar kinematics (central velocity dispersion measurements) with lensing geometry (Einstein radius determination from position of images). We apply such a method to a combined gravitational lens data set including 70 data points from Sloan Lens ACS (SLACS) and Lens Structure and Dynamics survey (LSD). On the other hand, a new sample of 10 lensing galaxy clusters with redshifts ranging from 0.1 to 0.6 carefully selected from strong gravitational lensing systems with both X-ray satellite observations and optical giant luminous arcs, is also used to constrain three dark energy models (ΛCDM, constant w and CPL) under a flat universe assumption. For the full sample (n = 80) and the restricted sample (n = 46) including 36 two-image lenses and 10 strong lensing arcs, we obtain relatively good fitting values of basic cosmological parameters, which generally agree with the results already known in the literature. This results encourages further development of this method and its use on larger samples obtained in the future.

We calculate the distribution function of astronomical objects (like galaxies and/or smooth halos of different kinds) gravitational fields due to their tidal interaction. For that we apply the statistical method of Chandrasekhar (1943), used there to calculate famous Holtzmark distribution. We show that in our approach the distribution function is never Gaussian, its form being dictated by the potential of interaction between objects. This calculation permits us to perform a theoretical analysis of the relation between angular momentum and mass (richness) of the galaxy clusters. To do so, we follow the idea of Catelan & Theuns (1996) and Heavens & Peacock (1988). The main difference is that here we reduce the problem to discrete many-body case, where all physical properties of the system are determined by the interaction potential V (r ij ). The essence of reduction is that we use the multipole (up to quadrupole here) expansion of Newtonian potential so that all hydrodynamic, "extended" characteristics of an object like its density mass are "integrated out" giving its "point-like" characteristics like mass and quadrupole moment. In that sense we make no difference between galaxies and smooth components like halos. We compare our theoretical results with observational data.