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      Detection of weak gravitational lensing distortions of distant galaxies by cosmic dark matter at large scales

      1 , , , ,
      Nature
      Springer Science and Business Media LLC

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          Abstract

          Most of the matter in the Universe is not luminous, and can be observed only through its gravitational influence on the appearance of luminous matter. Weak gravitational lensing is a technique that uses the distortions of the images of distant galaxies as a tracer of dark matter: such distortions are induced as the light passes through large-scale distributions of dark matter in the foreground. The patterns of the induced distortions reflect the density of mass along the line of sight and its distribution, and the resulting 'cosmic shear' can be used to distinguish between alternative cosmologies. But previous attempts to measure this effect have been inconclusive. Here we report the detection of cosmic shear on angular scales of up to half a degree using 145,000 galaxies and along three separate lines of sight. We find that the dark matter is distributed in a manner consistent with either an open universe, or a flat universe that is dominated by a cosmological constant. Our results are inconsistent with the standard cold-dark-matter model.

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          Author and article information

          Journal
          Nature
          Nature
          Springer Science and Business Media LLC
          1476-4687
          0028-0836
          May 11 2000
          : 405
          : 6783
          Affiliations
          [1 ] Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, New Jersey 07574, USA. wittman@physics.bell-labs.com
          Article
          10.1038/35012001
          10821262
          e9c1bddd-6819-4987-b3c6-96379b98b244
          History

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