The key for probing galaxy evolution: relating luminous matter in galaxies to their dark environments
Final Report Abstract
Dark Matter governs the formation and evolution of galaxies, as well as their dynamical properties at scales > 10 kpc. We analyzed the Galaxy-Galaxy Lensing signal in several multi-band wide-field surveys, starting from the reduction of preprocessed raw data, creation of multi-band catalogues, estimation of photometric redshifts and creation of shear catalogues. Concerning the technical aspects, we have developed and optimized methods for the efficient reduction of very large data sets, quality control, photometric redshifts and shear measurements. We have quantified the GGL signal in all of our datasets and interpreted these results in the framework of theoretical models. Among other results, we calibrated the galaxy-mass scaling relations over a broad magnitude range, and we verified the considerably higher mass-to-light ratio of early-type galaxies compared to late-types. We have obtained the first-ever measurement of the galaxy-galaxy-galaxy lensing signal, which opens a new door for using higher-order mass-galaxy correlations to test galaxy evolution models.
