Direct Shear Mapping: Prospects for Weak Lensing Studies of Individual Galaxy–Galaxy Lensing Systems

Abstract

AbstractUsing both a theoretical and an empirical approach, we have investigated the frequency of low redshift galaxy-galaxy lensing systems in which the signature of 3D weak lensing might be directly detectable. We find good agreement between these two approaches. Using data from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly redshift survey we estimate the frequency of detectable weak lensing at low redshift. We find that below a redshift of z ~ 0.6, the probability of a galaxy being weakly lensed by γ ⩾ 0.02 is ~ 0.01. We have also investigated the feasibility of measuring the scatter in the M* − Mh relation using shear statistics. We estimate that for a shear measurement error of Δγ = 0.02 (consistent with the sensitivity of the Direct Shear Mapping technique), with a sample of ~$50,000 spatially and spectrally resolved galaxies, the scatter in the M* − Mh relation could be measured. While there are currently no existing IFU surveys of this size, there are upcoming surveys that will provide this data (e.g The Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX), surveys with Hector, and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA)).