Alexandres Lazar, James S Bullock, Anna Nierenberg, Leonidas A Moustakas, Michael Boylan-Kolchin

An analytic surface density profile for ΛCDM haloes and gravitational lensing studies

  • Space and Planetary Science
  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
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Abstract We introduce an analytic surface density profile for dark matter haloes that accurately reproduces the structure of simulated haloes of mass Mvir = 107 − 11 M⊙, making it useful for modeling line-of-sight perturbers in strong gravitational lensing models. The two-parameter function has an analytic deflection potential and is more accurate than the projected Navarro, Frenk & White (NFW) profile commonly adopted at this mass scale for perturbers, especially at the small radii of most relevant for lensing perturbations. Using a characteristic radius, R−1, where the log slope of surface density is equal to −1, and an associated surface density, Σ−1, we can represent the expected lensing signal from line-of-sight halos statistically, for an ensemble of halo orientations, using a distribution of projected concentration parameters, $\mathcal {C}_{\rm vir} := r_{\rm vir}/ R_{-1}$. Though an individual halo can have a projected concentration that varies with orientation with respect to the observer, the range of projected concentrations correlates with the usual three-dimensional halo concentration in a way that enables ease of use.

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