The CFHTLS Strong Lensing Legacy Survey: I. Survey overview and T0002 release sample

AIMS: We present data from the CFHTLS Strong Lensing Legacy Survey (SL2S). Due to the unsurpassed combined depth, area and image quality of the Canada-France-Hawaii Legacy Survey it is becoming possible to uncover a large, statistically well-defined sample of strong gravitational lenses which spans...

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Hauptverfasser: Cabanac, R. A, Alard, C, Dantel-Fort, M, Fort, B, Gavazzi, R, Gomez, P, Kneib, J. P, Fevre, O. Le, Mellier, Y, Pello, R, Soucail, G, Sygnet, J. F, Valls-Gabaud, D
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:AIMS: We present data from the CFHTLS Strong Lensing Legacy Survey (SL2S). Due to the unsurpassed combined depth, area and image quality of the Canada-France-Hawaii Legacy Survey it is becoming possible to uncover a large, statistically well-defined sample of strong gravitational lenses which spans the dark halo mass spectrum predicted by the concordance model from galaxy to cluster haloes. METHODS: We describe the development of several automated procedures to find strong lenses of various mass regimes in CFHTLS images. RESULTS: The preliminary sample of about 40 strong lensing candidates discovered in the CFHTLS T0002 release, covering an effective field of view of 28 deg$^2$ is presented. These strong lensing systems were discovered using an automated search and consist mainly of gravitational arc systems with splitting angles between 2 and 15 arcsec. This sample shows for the first time that it is possible to uncover a large population of strong lenses from galaxy groups with typical halo masses of about $10^{13}h^{-1}M_\odot$. We discuss the future evolution of the SL2S project and its main scientific aims for the next 3 years, in particular our observational strategy to extract the hundreds of gravitational rings also present in these fields.
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0610362