# Gravitational Lensing and the Hubble Deep Field

## Introduction

The Hubble Deep Field (HDF; ) is the deepest optical survey that has been performed to date, allowing detailed studies of the galaxy redshift distribution and the global star formation history. Galaxies in the HDF have redshifts which are estimated to range from 0.1 to 5, with a large portion having redshifts between 2 and 4. Such galaxies have a significant probability of being strongly lensed.

The combination of high resolution and deep exposures in multiple colors provides a rich ground for gravitational lens searches, and it was expected that the HDF would contain between 3 to 10 lensed galaxies, based on the number of lensed quasars and radio sources in other surveys . Instead, a careful analysis of the HDF  has revealed a surprising dearth of candidates for lensed sources. In fact, the best estimate is either 0 or 1 lensed sources in the entire field, although very faint images with small angular separations may have escaped current analyses. This lack of lensing has led to suggestions (e.g., Ref. ) that the HDF data may be incompatible with the high probability of lensing expected in a universe with a large cosmological constant.

Here, we calculate the expected number of detectable, multiply-imaged galaxies in the HDF for different cosmological parameters, and we constrain these parameters by comparing the expectations with the observations. Further details of our calculation can be found in Ref. .

## Expected Number of Lensed Galaxies

In order to calculate the number of lensed galaxies in the HDF, we model the lensing galaxies as singular isothermal spheres (SIS) and use the analytical filled-beam approximation (e.g., Ref. ). We also include the effects of “magnification bias” due to a magnitude limit of point-source detection in the I-band. To describe the foreground lensing galaxies, we assume that the brightness distribution of galaxies at any given redshift is described by a Schechter function. We use the redshift-dependent luminosity function given in Ref.  to describe the foreground galaxies.

The background galaxies are described by magnitude and redshift distributions given in two photometric redshift catalogs . These catalogs are complete to an I-band limiting magnitude of 27 and contain a total of 848 galaxies. In Figure 1, we show the estimated photometric redshifts of the HDF galaxies according to Ref.  (left panel) and Ref.  (right panel) versus I-band magnitude. Even though the redshift distribution is different for the two catalogs — because redshifts are estimated using two different techniques — our constraints on cosmological parameters are almost the same for either catalog.

## Constraints on Cosmological Parameters

In Figure 2, we show the expected number, $`\overline{N}`$, of strongly lensed sources in the HDF as a function of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, using the photometric redshift catalog of Ref. . A universe dominated with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ has a higher number of multiply-imaged sources than the number in a universe dominated with a large $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$. As shown in Fig. 2, $`\overline{N}`$ is essentially a function of the combined quantity $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. This degeneracy in the lensing probability permits us to constrain $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ rather than $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ or $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ separately.

We constrain the quantity $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ by comparing the observed and expected number of lensed galaxies in the HDF and by using a Bayesian likelihood approach . We consider cases in which either 0, 1 (the best estimate from observations), or 2 lensed sources are found in the HDF, for lens search programs that have been carried out to an I-band limiting magnitude of $`m_{\mathrm{lim}}=28.5`$.

If there are no lensed galaxies in the HDF, then at the 95% confidence level $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }>0.44`$, so that in a flat universe $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }<0.72`$. If there is one lensed galaxy in the HDF, our constraint depends only slightly on the galaxy redshift, estimated to be between 1 and 2.5 . If the galaxy redshift is 1, then $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }>0.52`$, implying $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }<0.76`$ in a flat universe. If instead the galaxy redshift is 2.5, then $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }>0.58`$, and hence $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }<0.79`$ in a flat universe. If 2 strongly lensed galaxies are present in the HDF, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }>0.73`$ at the 95% confidence level. These limits are compatible with estimates based on high-redshift type Ia supernovae  and with previous limits on the cosmological constant based on gravitational lensing .

In Ref. , we discussed some of the systematic uncertainties in our calculation, the largest of which are due to effects of reddening and extinction on (optical) lens search programs. Such effects tend to reduce the number of observed lenses, and hence could lead to a systematic underestimate of the upper bound on the cosmological constant. We allowed $`m_{\mathrm{lim}}`$ to vary by as much as 1 magnitude to indicate the possible scope of such an effect: we find that our upper bound on $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ increases by about 0.06.

We find that using photometric redshifts from two different catalogs  yields results that are almost indistinguishable. Thus, we have shown that photometric redshifts can be used to estimate the expected number of lensed galaxies in the HDF with reasonable accuracy. This bodes well for the upcoming Southern Hubble Deep Field redshift catalog that is expected in the near-future. The Southern HDF will double the number of high redshift galaxies and will increase the expected number of gravitationally lensed galaxies. The actual number of lensed sources will lead to stronger constraints on $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$.