We present the first weak gravitational lensing analysis of the completed Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS). We study the 64 square degrees W1 field, the largest of the CFHTLS-Wide survey fields, and present the largest contiguous weak lensing convergence "mass map" yet made. 2.66 million galaxy shapes are measured, using a KSB pipeline verified against high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope imaging that covers part of the CFHTLS. Our i'-band measurements are also consistent with an analysis of independent r'-band imaging. The reconstructed lensing convergence map contains 301 peaks with signal-to-noise ratio ν>3.5, consistent with predictions of a ΛCDM model. Of these peaks, 126 lie within 3.0' of a BCG identified from multicolor optical imaging in an independent, red sequence survey. We also identify 7 counterparts for massive clusters previously seen in X-ray emission within 6 square degrees XMM-LSS survey. With photometric redshift estimates for the source galaxies, we use a tomographic lensing method to fit the redshift and mass of each convergence peak. Matching these to the optical observations, we confirm 85 groups/clusters with χ^2 reduced < 3.0, at a mean redshift <z_c> = 0.36 and velocity dispersion <σ_c> = 658.8 km/s. Future surveys, such as DES, LSST, KDUST and EUCLID, will be able to apply these same techniques to map clusters in much larger volumes and thus tightly constrain cosmological models.
Several recent cosmological analyses have found tension between constraints derived from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS) data and those derived from other data sets, such as the Planck cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropies. Similarly, a direct cross-correlation of the CFHTLenS data with Planck CMB lensing data yielded an anomalously low amplitude compared to expectations based on Planck or WMAP-derived cosmological parameters (Liu & Hill 2015). One potential explanation for these results is a multiplicative bias afflicting the CFHTLenS galaxy s…
We measure the cross-power spectrum between galaxy density from Canada-France-Hawaii-Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS) catalogues and gravitational lensing convergence from Planck data release 1 (2013) and 2 (2015). We investigate three main galaxy samples: $18.0<i_{\rm AB}<22.0$, $18.0<i_{\rm AB}<23.0$, $18.0<i_{\rm AB}<24.0$ in the redshift range $0.2<z<1.3$ in each of the four CFHTLenS wide fields. By comparing the measured cross-spectrum with model predictions, linear galaxy-dark matter biases of $b=0.82^{+0.24}_{-0.23}, 0.83^{+0.19}_{-0.18}, 0.82^{+0.16}_{-0.14}$ are inferred at signifi…
We cross-correlate cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing and galaxy weak lensing maps using the Planck 2013 and 2015 data and the 154 deg^2 Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS). This measurement probes large-scale structure at intermediate redshifts ~0.9, between the high- and low-redshift peaks of the CMB and CFHTLenS lensing kernels, respectively. Using the noise properties of these data sets and standard Planck 2015 LCDM cosmological parameters, we forecast a signal-to-noise ratio ~4.6 for the cross-correlation. We find that the noise level of our actual measurement …
We present the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS) that accurately determines a weak gravitational lensing signal from the full 154 square degrees of deep multi-colour data obtained by the CFHT Legacy Survey. Weak gravitational lensing by large-scale structure is widely recognised as one of the most powerful but technically challenging probes of cosmology. We outline the CFHTLenS analysis pipeline, describing how and why every step of the chain from the raw pixel data to the lensing shear and photometric redshift measurement has been revised and improved compared to previo…
The Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS) represents the most powerful weak lensing survey carried out to date. The CFHTLenS (Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey) team was formed in 2008 to analyse the data from the CFHTLS focussing on a rigorous treatment of systematic effects in shape measurements and photometric redshifts. Here we review the technical challenges that we faced in analysing these data and their solutions which set the current standard for weak lensing analyses. We also present some science highlights that were made possible by this effort including c…
The possibly unbiased selection process in surveys of the Sunyaev Zel'dovich effect can unveil new populations of galaxy clusters. We performed a weak lensing analysis of the PSZ2LenS sample, i.e. the PSZ2 galaxy clusters detected by the Planck mission in the sky portion covered by the lensing surveys CFHTLenS and RCSLenS. PSZ2LenS consists of 35 clusters and it is a statistically complete and homogeneous subsample of the PSZ2 catalogue. The Planck selected clusters appear to be unbiased tracers of the massive end of the cosmological haloes. The mass concentration relation of the sample is in …
The Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS) comprises deep multi-colour (u*g'r'i'z') photometry spanning 154 square degrees, with accurate photometric redshifts and shape measurements. We demonstrate that the redshift probability distribution function summed over galaxies provides an accurate representation of the galaxy redshift distribution accounting for random and catastrophic errors for galaxies with best fitting photometric redshifts z_p < 1.3. We present cosmological constraints using tomographic weak gravitational lensing by large-scale structure. We use two broad reds…
We measure a combination of gravitational lensing, galaxy clustering, and redshift-space distortions called $E_G$. The quantity $E_G$ probes both parts of metric potential and is insensitive to galaxy bias and $σ_8$. These properties make it an attractive statistic to test $Λ$CDM, General Relativity and its alternate theories. We have combined CMASS DR11 with CFHTLenS and recent measurements of $β$ from RSD analysis, and find $E_G(z = 0.57) = 0.42 \pm 0.056$, an 13\% measurement in agreement with the prediction of general relativity $E_G(z = 0.57) = 0.396 \pm 0.011$ using the Planck 2015 cosmo…
Based on the cosmic shear data from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS), Kilbinger et al. (2013) obtained a constraint on the amplitude of matter fluctuations of $σ_8({Ω_\mathrm{m}}/0.27)^{0.6}=0.79\pm0.03$ from the two-point correlation function (2PCF). This is $\approx3σ$ lower than the value $0.89\pm0.01$ derived from Planck data on cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies. On the other hand, based on the same CFHTLenS data, but using the power spectrum, and performing a different analysis, Liu et al. (2015) obtained the higher value of $σ_8({Ω_\mathrm{m}}/0.2…
We examine the level of agreement between low redshift weak lensing data and the CMB using measurements from the CFHTLenS and Planck+WMAP polarization. We perform an independent analysis of the CFHTLenS six bin tomography results of Heymans et al. (2013). We extend their systematics treatment and find the cosmological constraints to be relatively robust to the choice of non-linear modeling, extension to the intrinsic alignment model and inclusion of baryons. We find that the 90% confidence contours of CFHTLenS and Planck+WP do not overlap even in the full 6-dimensional parameter space of $Λ$CD…
We present data products from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS). CFHTLenS is based on the Wide component of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS). It encompasses 154 deg^2 of deep, optical, high-quality, sub-arcsecond imaging data in the five optical filters u^*g'r'i'z'. The article presents our data processing of the complete CFHTLenS data set. We were able to obtain a data set with very good image quality and high-quality astrometric and photometric calibration. Our external astrometric accuracy is between 60-70 mas with respect to SDSS data and…
I cross-correlate the galaxy counts from the Canada-France Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS) galaxy catalogue and Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) convergence from the Planck data release 1 (2013) and 2 (2015), following the work of Omori & Holder (2015). I improve their study by computing an analytic covariance from the Halo Model, implementing simulations to validate the theoretically estimated error bars and the reconstruction method, fitting both a galaxy bias and a cross-correlation amplitude using the joint cross and galaxy auto-correlation, and performing a series of null test…
We use weak gravitational lensing to analyse the dark matter halos around satellite galaxies in galaxy groups in the CFHTLenS dataset. This dataset is derived from the CFHTLS-Wide survey, and encompasses 154 sq. deg of high-quality shape data. Using the photometric redshifts, we divide the sample of lens galaxies with stellar masses in the range 10^9 Msun to 10^10.5 Msun into those likely to lie in high-density environments (HDE) and those likely to lie in low-density environments (LDE). Through comparison with galaxy catalogues extracted from the Millennium Simulation, we show that the sample…
Weak gravitational lensing is a powerful cosmological probe, with non--Gaussian features potentially containing the majority of the information. We examine constraints on the parameter triplet $(Ω_m,w,σ_8)$ from non-Gaussian features of the weak lensing convergence field, including a set of moments (up to $4^{\rm th}$ order) and Minkowski functionals, using publicly available data from the 154deg$^2$ CFHTLenS survey. We utilize a suite of ray--tracing N-body simulations spanning 91 points in $(Ω_m,w,σ_8)$ parameter space, replicating the galaxy sky positions, redshifts and shape noise in the C…
We present the cluster mass-richness scaling relation calibrated by a weak lensing analysis of >18000 galaxy cluster candidates in the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS). Detected using the 3D-Matched-Filter cluster-finder of Milkeraitis et al., these cluster candidates span a wide range of masses, from the small group scale up to $\sim10^{15} M_{\odot}$, and redshifts 0.2 $\lesssim z\lesssim$ 0.9. The total significance of the stacked shear measurement amounts to 54$σ$. We compare cluster masses determined using weak lensing shear and magnification, finding the measureme…
Lensing peaks have been proposed as a useful statistic, containing cosmological information from non-Gaussianities that is inaccessible from traditional two-point statistics such as the power spectrum or two-point correlation functions. Here we examine constraints on cosmological parameters from weak lensing peak counts, using the publicly available data from the 154 deg$^2$ CFHTLenS survey. We utilize a new suite of ray-tracing N-body simulations on a grid of 91 cosmological models, covering broad ranges of the three parameters $Ω_m$, $σ_8$, and $w$, and replicating the Galaxy sky positions, …
We present a finely-binned tomographic weak lensing analysis of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey, CFHTLenS, mitigating contamination to the signal from the presence of intrinsic galaxy alignments via the simultaneous fit of a cosmological model and an intrinsic alignment model. CFHTLenS spans 154 square degrees in five optical bands, with accurate shear and photometric redshifts for a galaxy sample with a median redshift of zm =0.70. We estimate the 21 sets of cosmic shear correlation functions associated with six redshift bins, each spanning the angular range of 1.5<theta<35 …
Testing predictions of semi-analytic models of galaxy evolution against observations help to understand the complex processes that shape galaxies. We compare predictions from the Garching and Durham models implemented on the Millennium Run with observations of galaxy-galaxy lensing (GGL) and galaxy-galaxy-galaxy lensing (G3L) for various galaxy samples with stellar masses in the range 0.5 < (M_* / 10^10 M_Sun) < 32 and photometric redshift range 0.2 < z < 0.6 in the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS). We find that the predicted GGL and G3L signals are in qualitative agree…
We analyse three public cosmic shear surveys; the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS-450), the Dark Energy Survey (DES-SV) and the Canada France Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS). Adopting the COSEBIs statistic to cleanly and completely separate the lensing E-modes from the non-lensing B-modes, we detect B-modes in KiDS-450 and CFHTLenS at the level of about 2.7 $σ$. For DES- SV we detect B-modes at the level of 2.8 $σ$ in a non-tomographic analysis, increasing to a 5.5 $σ$ B-mode detection in a tomographic analysis. In order to understand the origin of these detected B-modes we measure the B-m…
We measure the weak gravitational lensing shear power spectra and their cross-power in two photometric redshift bins from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS). The measurements are performed directly in multipole space in terms of adjustable band powers. For the extraction of the band powers from the data we have implemented and extended a quadratic estimator, a maximum likelihood method that allows us to readily take into account irregular survey geometries, masks, and varying sampling densities. We find the 68 per cent credible intervals in the $σ_8$-$Ω_{\rm m}$-plane…
We present weak lensing and X-ray analysis of 12 low mass clusters from the CFHTLenS and XMM-CFHTLS surveys. We combine these systems with high-mass systems from CCCP and low-mass systems from COSMOS to obtain a sample of 70 systems, spanning over two orders of magnitude in mass. We measure core-excised Lx-Tx, M-Lx and M-Tx scaling relations and include corrections for observational biases. By providing fully bias corrected relations, we give the current limitations for Lx and Tx as cluster mass proxies. We demonstrate that Tx benefits from a significantly lower intrinsic scatter at fixed mass…
We present cosmological constraints from 2D weak gravitational lensing by the large-scale structure in the Canada-France Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS) which spans 154 square degrees in five optical bands. Using accurate photometric redshifts and measured shapes for 4.2 million galaxies between redshifts of 0.2 and 1.3, we compute the 2D cosmic shear correlation function over angular scales ranging between 0.8 and 350 arcmin. Using non-linear models of the dark-matter power spectrum, we constrain cosmological parameters by exploring the parameter space with Population Monte Carlo s…
Based on weak lensing data from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS), in this paper we study the mass-concentration ($M$-$c$) relation for $\sim 200$ redMaPPer clusters in the fields. We extract the $M$-$c$ relation by measuring the density profiles of individual clusters instead of using stacked weak lensing signals. By performing Monte Carlo simulations, we demonstrate that although the signal-to-noise ratio for each individual cluster is low, the unbiased $M$-$c$ relation can still be reliably derived from a large sample of clusters by carefully taking into account t…
We measure the cross-correlation signature between the Planck CMB lensing map and the weak lensing observations from both the Red-sequence Cluster Lensing Survey (RCSLenS) and the Canada-France-Hawai Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS). In addition to a Fourier analysis, we include the first configuration-space detection, based on the estimators $\langle κ_{\rm CMB} κ_{\rm gal} \rangle$ and $\langle κ_{\rm CMB} γ_{t} \rangle$. Combining 747.2 deg$^2$ from both surveys, we find a detection significance that exceeds $4.2σ$ in both Fourier- and configuration-space analyses. Scaling the prediction…
The matter environment of galaxies is connected to the physics of galaxy formation and evolution. Utilising galaxy-galaxy-galaxy lensing as a direct probe, we map out the distribution of correlated surface mass-density around galaxy pairs for different lens separations in the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS). We compare, for the first time, these so-called excess mass maps to predictions provided by a recent semi-analytic model, which is implanted within the dark-matter Millennium Simulation. We analyse galaxies with stellar masses between $10^9-10^{11}\,{\rm M}_\odot$ …
We report the first evidence for intrinsic alignment (IA) of red galaxies at $z>1$. We measure the gravitational shear-intrinsic ellipticity (GI) cross-correlation function at $z\sim1.3$ using galaxy positions from the FastSound spectroscopic survey and galaxy shapes from Canada-Hawaii-France telescope lensing survey data. Adopting the non-linear alignment model, we obtain a $2.4σ$-level detection of the IA amplitude $A^{\rm LA}=27.48_{-11.54}^{+11.53}$ (and $2.6σ$ with $A^{\rm LA}=29.43_{-11.49}^{+11.48}$ when weak-lensing contaminations are taken into account), which is larger than the value…
The combination of Galaxy-Galaxy Lensing (GGL) and Redshift Space Distortion of galaxy clustering (RSD) is a privileged technique to test General Relativity predictions, and break degeneracies between the growth rate of structure parameter $f$ and the amplitude of the linear power-spectrum $σ_8$. We perform a joint GGL and RSD analysis on 250 sq. degrees using shape catalogues from CFHTLenS and CFHT-Stripe 82, and spectroscopic redshifts from the BOSS CMASS sample. We adjust a model that includes non-linear biasing, RSD and Alcock-Paczynski effects. We find $f(z=0.57) =0.95\pm0.23$, $σ_8(z=0.5…
There is currently a discrepancy in the measured value of the amplitude of matter clustering, parameterised using $σ_8$, inferred from galaxy weak lensing, and cosmic microwave background data, which could be an indication of new physics, such as massive neutrinos or a modification to the gravity law, or baryon feedback. In this paper we make the assumption that the cosmological parameters are well determined by Planck, and use weak lensing data to investigate the implications for baryon feedback and massive neutrinos, as well as possible contributions from intrinsic alignments and biases in p…
We present the Strong Lensing Legacy Survey - ARCS (SARCS) sample compiled from the final T0006 data release of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS) covering a total non-overlapping area of 159 sq.deg. We adopt a semi-automatic method to find gravitational arcs in the survey that makes use of an arc-finding algorithm. The candidate list is pruned by visual inspection and ranking to form the SARCS sample. This list also includes some serendipitously discovered lens candidates. The SARCS sample consists of 127 lens candidates which span arc radii~2"-18" within the unmasked a…
We present the first direct measurement of the galaxy-matter bispectrum as a function of galaxy luminosity, stellar mass, and SED type. Our analysis uses a galaxy-galaxy-galaxy lensing technique (G3L), on angular scales between 9 arcsec to 50 arcmin, to quantify (i) the excess surface mass density around galaxy pairs (excess mass hereafter) and (ii) the excess shear-shear correlations around single galaxies, both of which yield a measure of two types of galaxy-matter bispectra. We apply our method to the state-of-the-art Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS), spanning 154 sq…
We present weak lensing constraints on the ellipticity of galaxy-scale matter haloes and the galaxy-halo misalignment. Using data from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS), we measure the weighted-average ratio of the aligned projected ellipticity components of galaxy matter haloes and their embedded galaxies, $f_\mathrm{h}$, split by galaxy type. We then compare our observations to measurements taken from the Millennium Simulation, assuming different models of galaxy-halo misalignment. Using the Millennium Simulation we verify that the statistical estimator used remove…
We present a study of the relation between dark matter halo mass and the baryonic content of host galaxies, quantified via luminosity and stellar mass. Our investigation uses 154 deg2 of Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS) lensing and photometric data, obtained from the CFHT Legacy Survey. We employ a galaxy-galaxy lensing halo model which allows us to constrain the halo mass and the satellite fraction. Our analysis is limited to lenses at redshifts between 0.2 and 0.4. We express the relationship between halo mass and baryonic observable as a power law. For the luminosity…
We report the results of $EasyCritics$, a fully automated algorithm for the efficient search of strong-lensing (SL) regions in wide-field surveys, applied to the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS). By using only the photometric information of the brightest elliptical galaxies distributed over a wide redshift range ($\smash{0.2 \lesssim z \lesssim 0.9}$) and without requiring the identification of arcs, our algorithm produces lensing potential models and catalogs of critical curves of the entire survey area. We explore several parameter set configurations in order to test …
We determine the accuracy of galaxy redshift distributions as estimated from photometric redshift probability distributions $p(z)$. Our method utilises measurements of the angular cross-correlation between photometric galaxies and an overlapping sample of galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts. We describe the redshift leakage from a galaxy photometric redshift bin $j$ into a spectroscopic redshift bin $i$ using the sum of the $p(z)$ for the galaxies residing in bin $j$. We can then predict the angular cross-correlation between photometric and spectroscopic galaxies due to intrinsic galaxy clus…
We measured stacked weak lensing cluster masses for a sample of 1325 galaxy clusters detected by the RedGOLD algorithm in the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey W1 and the Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey at $0.2<z<0.5$, in the optical richness range $10<λ<70$. After a selection of our best richness subsample ($20<λ<50$), this is the most comprehensive lensing study of a $\sim 100\%$ complete and $\sim 90\%$ pure optical cluster catalogue in this redshift range, with a total of 346 clusters in $\sim164~deg^2$. We test three different mass models, and our best model includes a bas…
Dark energy may be the first sign of new fundamental physics in the Universe, taking either a physical form or revealing a correction to Einsteinian gravity. Weak gravitational lensing and galaxy peculiar velocities provide complementary probes of General Relativity, and in combination allow us to test modified theories of gravity in a unique way. We perform such an analysis by combining measurements of cosmic shear tomography from the Canada-France Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS) with the growth of structure from the WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey and the Six-degree-Field Galaxy Survey…
We review the effect of the commonly-used Limber and flat-sky approximations on the calculation of shear power spectra and correlation functions for galaxy weak lensing. These approximations are accurate at small scales, but it has been claimed recently that their impact on low multipoles could lead to an increase in the amplitude of the mass fluctuations inferred from surveys such as CFHTLenS, reducing the tension between galaxy weak lensing and the amplitude determined by Planck from observations of the cosmic microwave background. Here, we explore the impact of these approximations on cosmo…
This paper presents the first application of 3D cosmic shear to a wide-field weak lensing survey. 3D cosmic shear is a technique that analyses weak lensing in three dimensions using a spherical harmonic approach, and does not bin data in the redshift direction. This is applied to CFHTLenS, a 154 square degree imaging survey with a median redshift of 0.7 and an effective number density of 11 galaxies per square arcminute usable for weak lensing. To account for survey masks we apply a 3D pseudo-Cl approach on weak lensing data, and to avoid uncertainties in the highly non-linear regime, we separ…
A likelihood-based method for measuring weak gravitational lensing shear in deep galaxy surveys is described and applied to the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS). CFHTLenS comprises 154 sq deg of multicolour optical data from the CFHT Legacy Survey, with lensing measurements being made in the i' band to a depth i'(AB)<24.7, for galaxies with signal-to-noise ratio greater than about 10. The method is based on the lensfit algorithm described in earlier papers, but here we describe a full analysis pipeline that takes into account the properties of real surveys. The m…
Weak gravitational lensing (WL) has been established as one of the most promising probes of cosmology. So far, most studies have exploited the shear effect of WL leading to coherent distortions of galaxy shapes. But WL also introduces coherent magnifications. We want to detect this cosmic magnification effect in large samples of high-redshift galaxies selected from the Deep part of the CFHTLS. Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs) at z=2.5-5, are used as a background sample and are cross-correlated to foreground lens galaxies selected by photo-z's. The signals of LBGs in different magnitude bins are com…
We present an optimised galaxy cluster finder, 3D-Matched-Filter (3D-MF), which utilises galaxy cluster radial profiles, luminosity functions and redshift information to detect galaxy clusters in optical surveys. This method is an improvement over other matched-filter methods, most notably through implementing redshift slicing of the data to significantly reduce line-of-sight projections and related false positives. We apply our method to the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS) Deep fields, finding ~170 galaxy clusters per square degree in the 0.2 <= z <= 1.0 redshift range. …
We present constraints on testing general relativity (GR) at cosmological scales using recent data sets and assess the impact of galaxy intrinsic alignment (IA) in the CFHTLenS lensing data on those constraints. We consider CMB temperature data from Planck, the galaxy power spectrum from WiggleZ, weak lensing tomography from the CFHTLenS, ISW-galaxy cross correlations, and BAO data from 6dF, SDSS DR7, and BOSS DR9. We use a parameterization of the modified gravity (MG) that is binned in redshift and scale, a parameterization that evolves monotonically in scale but is binned in redshift, and a …
We have developed a method for detecting clusters in large imaging surveys, based on the detection of structures in galaxy density maps made in slices of photometric redshifts. This method was first applied to the Canada France Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS) Deep 1 field by Mazure et al. (2007), then to all the Deep and Wide CFHTLS fields available in the T0004 data release by Adami et al. (2010). The validity of the cluster detection rate was estimated by applying the same procedure to galaxies from the Millennium simulation. Here we analyse with the same method the full CFHTLS Wide …
The detection of galaxy clusters in present and future surveys enables measuring mass-to-light ratios, clustering properties, galaxy cluster abundances and therefore, constraining cosmological parameters. We present a new technique for detecting galaxy clusters, which is based on the Matched Filter Algorithm from a Bayesian point of view. The method is able to determine the position, redshift and richness of the cluster through the maximization of a filter depending on galaxy luminosity, density and photometric redshift combined with a galaxy cluster prior that accounts for color-magnitude rel…
Gravitational lensing magnification is measured with a significance of 9.7 sigma on a large sample of galaxy clusters in the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS). This survey covers ~154 deg^2 and contains over 18,000 cluster candidates at redshifts 0.2 <= z <= 0.9, detected using the 3D-Matched Filter cluster-finder of Milkeraitis et al. (2010). We fit composite-NFW models to the ensemble, accounting for cluster miscentering, source-lens redshift overlap, as well as nearby structure (the 2-halo term), and recover mass estimates of the cluster dark matter halos in range of …
We present new constraints on the relationship between galaxies and their host dark matter halos, measured from the location of the peak of the stellar-to-halo mass ratio (SHMR), up to the most massive galaxy clusters at redshift $z\sim0.8$ and over a volume of nearly 0.1~Gpc$^3$. We use a unique combination of deep observations in the CFHTLenS/VIPERS field from the near-UV to the near-IR, supplemented by $\sim60\,000$ secure spectroscopic redshifts, analysing galaxy clustering, galaxy-galaxy lensing and the stellar mass function. We interpret our measurements within the halo occupation distri…
Lensing magnification and stacked shear measurements of galaxy clusters rely on measuring the density of background galaxies behind the clusters. The most common ways of measuring this quantity ignore the fact that some fraction of the sky is obscured by the cluster galaxies themselves, reducing the area in which background galaxies can be observed. We discuss the size of this effect in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS), finding a minimum 1 per cent effect at $0.1h^{-1}$Mpc from the centers of clusters in SDSS; the effect is an…
In order to enlarge publicly available optical cluster catalogs, in particular at high redshift, we have performed a systematic search for clusters of galaxies in the CFHTLS. We used the Le Phare photometric redshifts for the galaxies detected with magnitude limits of i'=25 and 23 for the Deep and Wide fields respectively. We then constructed galaxy density maps in photometric redshift bins of 0.1 based on an adaptive kernel technique and detected structures with SExtractor. In order to assess the validity of our cluster detection rates, we applied a similar procedure to galaxies in Millennium…
We have developed a new method, K2, optimized for the detection of galaxy clusters in multicolor images. Based on the Red Sequence approach, K2 detects clusters using simultaneous enhancements in both colors and position. The detection significance is robustly determined through extensive Monte-Carlo simulations and through comparison with available cluster catalogs based on two different optical methods, and also on X-ray data. K2 also provides quantitative estimates of the candidate clusters' richness and photometric redshifts. Initially K2 was applied to 161 sq deg of two color gri images o…
The measurement of cosmic shear using weak gravitational lensing is a challenging task that involves a number of complicated procedures. We study in detail the systematic errors in the measurement of weak lensing Minkowski Functionals (MFs). Specifically, we focus on systematics associated with galaxy shape measurements, photometric redshift errors, and shear calibration correction. We first generate mock weak-lensing catalogs that directly incorporate the actual observational characteristics of the Canada-France-Hawaii Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS). We then perform a Fisher analysis using the lar…
[ABRIDGED] The new generation of wide field optical imaging like the Canada France Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS) enables discoveries of all types of gravitational lenses present in the sky. The Strong Lensing Legacy Survey (SL2S) project has started an inventory, respectively for clusters or groups of galaxies lenses, and for Einstein rings around distant massive ellipticals. Here we attempt to extend this inventory by finding lensing events produced by massive edge-on disk galaxies which remains a poorly documented class of lenses. We implement and test an automated search procedure…
Reconstruction of the point spread function (PSF) is a critical process in weak lensing measurement. We develop a real-data based and galaxy-oriented pipeline to compare the performances of various PSF reconstruction schemes. Making use of a large amount of the CFHTLenS data, the performances of three classes of interpolating schemes - polynomial, Kriging, and Shepard - are evaluated. We find that polynomial interpolations with optimal orders and domains perform the best. We quantify the effect of the residual PSF reconstruction error on shear recovery in terms of the multiplicative and additi…
Galaxy-galaxy weak lensing is a direct probe of the mean matter distribution around galaxies. The depth and sky coverage of the CFHT Legacy Survey yield statistically significant galaxy halo mass measurements over a much wider range of stellar masses ($10^{8.75}$ to $10^{11.3} M_{\odot}$) and redshifts ($0.2 < z < 0.8$) than previous weak lensing studies. At redshift $z \sim 0.5$, the stellar-to-halo mass ratio (SHMR) reaches a maximum of $4.0\pm0.2$ percent as a function of halo mass at $\sim 10^{12.25} M_{\odot}$. We find, for the first time from weak lensing alone, evidence for significant …
We present the rest-frame optical galaxy merger fraction between 0.2<z<1.2, as a function of stellar mass and optical luminosity, as observed by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Deep Survey (CFHTLS-Deep). We developed a new classification scheme to identify major galaxy-galaxy mergers based on the presence of tidal tails and bridges. These morphological features are signposts of recent and ongoing merger activity. Through the visual classification of all galaxies, down to i_vega<22.2 (~27,000 galaxies) over 2 square degrees, we have compiled the CFHTLS Deep Catalog of Interacting Gala…
We study the optimal use of third order statistics in the analysis of weak lensing by large-scale structure. These higher order statistics have long been advocated as a powerful tool to break measured degeneracies between cosmological parameters. Using ray-tracing simulations, incorporating important survey features such as a realistic depth-dependent redshift distribution, we find that a joint two- and three-point correlation function analysis is a much stronger probe of cosmology than the skewness statistic. We compare different observing strategies, showing that for a limited survey time th…
The CFHTLS presents a unique data set for weak lensing studies, having high quality imaging and deep multi-band photometry. We have initiated an XMM-CFHTLS project to provide X-ray observations of the brightest X-ray selected clusters within the wide CFHTLS area. Performance of these observations and the high quality of CFHTLS data, allows us to revisit the identification of X-ray sources, introducing automated reproducible algorithms, based on the multi-color red sequence finder. We have also introduced a new optical mass proxy. We provide the calibration of the red sequence observed in the C…
A joint analysis of the clustering of galaxies and their weak gravitational lensing signal is well-suited to simultaneously constrain the galaxy-halo connection as well as the cosmological parameters by breaking the degeneracy between galaxy bias and the amplitude of clustering signal. In a series of two papers, we perform such an analysis at the highest redshift ($z\sim0.53$) in the literature using CMASS galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Eleventh Data Release (SDSS-III/BOSS DR11) catalog spanning 8300~deg$^2$. In this paper, we present detai…
(Abridged) The effect of baryonic feedback on the dark matter mass distribution is generally considered to be a nuisance to weak gravitational lensing. Measurements of cosmological parameters are affected as feedback alters the cosmic shear signal on angular scales smaller than a few arcminutes. Recent progress on the numerical modelling of baryon physics has shown that this effect could be so large that, rather than being a nuisance, the effect can be constrained with current weak lensing surveys, hence providing an alternative astrophysical insight on one of the most challenging questions of…
We present a detailed investigation of the changing relationship between galaxies and the dark matter haloes they inhabit from z~1.2 to the present day. We do this by comparing precise galaxy clustering measurements over 133 deg2 of the "Wide" component of the CFHT Legacy Survey (CFHTLS) with predictions of an analytic HOD model where the number of galaxies in each halo depends only on the halo mass. Starting from a parent catalogue of ~ 3x10^6 galaxies at i'_AB < 22.5 we use accurate photometric redshifts calibrated using ~ 10^4 spectroscopic redshifts to create a series of type-selected volu…
Accurate reconstruction of the spatial distributions of the Point Spread Function (PSF) is crucial for high precision cosmic shear measurements. Nevertheless, current methods are not good at recovering the PSF fluctuations of high spatial frequencies. In general, the residual PSF fluctuations are spatially correlated, therefore can significantly contaminate the correlation functions of the weak lensing signals. We propose a method to correct for this contamination statistically, without any assumptions on the PSF and galaxy morphologies or their spatial distribution. We demonstrate our idea wi…
