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C. D. Fassnacht (UC Davis), P. J. Marshall, A. E. Baltz, R. D. Blandford (KIPAC), P. L. Schechter (MIT), J. A. Tyson (UC Davis)
The LSST will obtain hundreds of images of 20,000 square degrees, integrating to 26.5 AB mag in each of 5-6 bands. Photometric redshifts will be available for the ~3 billion detected galaxies. The data set will provide deep multicolor photometry and variability monitoring. One of the many strengths of the LSST will be its ability to use strong gravitational lensing to study dark matter distributions on galaxy and cluster scales.
The unprecedented combination of depth and area will be exploited to find rare objects, such as clusters in which background sources are lensed into multiple images. By sampling the gravitational potential at several radii in these systems, the LSST imaging will allow accurate, high-angular resolution reconstructions of cluster mass distributions. Our simulations predict that the LSST dataset will provide at least an order of magnitude increase in the number of such systems known. Other rare lensed image configurations will provide important insights into cosmography and source astrophysics. These include multiply-imaged supernovae, multiple-plane lensing, and unusual strong lenses with higher-order catastrophes.
In addition to the rare objects that will be found in the LSST survey, the survey images will produce at least an order of magnitude increase in galaxy-scale lenses. The LSST strategy of repeated imaging of the survey area will provide automatic monitoring of these lensed sources. Combined with a knowledge of the Hubble Constant and model constraints from space-based imaging, the measurement of time delays will provide a sensitive probe of the overall matter distribution in the lensing galaxies. Furthermore, these systems can provide information on the clumping of matter on sub-galaxy scales, through the investigation of flux-ratio anomalies and time-domain variations due to microlensing.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.