# Gravitational Lensing as a Probe of Quintessence

## 1. Introduction

There is now strong evidence that the matter density of the Universe, both baryonic and dark, is smaller than the critical value predicted by inflation. Some of the same cosmological probes that suggest the ratio of matter density to critical density is less than one prefer the presence of an additional component with energy density such that the total energy density of the Universe is in fact the critical value (e.g., Lineweaver 1998; Perlmutter et al. 1998; Riess et al. 1998). Type Ia supernovae and other observations have recently provided evidence that the equation of state, $`w`$, of this component is $`1wP/\rho 1/3`$ (Garnavich et al. 1998; Waga & Miceli 1998; Cooray 1999).

The oldest known candidate for this additional energy is the cosmological constant, characterized by $`w=1`$. However, other possibilities have now been considered, including a slowly-varying, spatially inhomogeneous scalar field component better known as quintessence (e.g., Huey et al. 1998; Zlatev et al. 1998; Wang & Steinhardt 1998). Certain quintessence models, called tracker models (Ferreira & Joyce 1997; Zlatev et al. 1998; see Steinhardt et al. 1998 for a comprehensive review), have the feature that the energy density of the scalar field, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_Q`$, is a fixed fraction of the energy density of the dominant component. Therefore such models may explain the coincidence problem — why $`\mathrm{\Omega }_Q`$ is of the same order of magnitude as $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M`$ today. In these tracker models $`w`$ is a function of redshift, and typically varies from $`w1/3`$ during the radiation dominated era to $`w0.2`$ during the matter-dominated era and finally to a value $`w0.8`$ during late epochs (today). Time variation of the equation of state is even more prominent in scalar field models involving pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone bosons (PNGB models) (Frieman et al. 1995). In such models the field is frozen to its initial value due to the large expansion rate, but becomes dynamical at some later stage at redshift $`z_x`$. Likely values for $`z_x`$ are roughly between 3 and 0 (Coble et al. 1997), which means that interesting dynamics — and hence the variation in the equation of state — happen at redshift of a few. Huterer & Turner (1999) point out that distance measurements to Type Ia supernovae offer a possibility to reconstruct the quintessence potential, while Starobinsky (1998) and Wang & Steinhardt (1998) suggested the possibility of using cluster abundances as a function of redshift as well.

In § 2, we study constraints on $`w(z)`$ based on current Type Ia supernovae distances, gravitational lensing statistics, and globular cluster ages. In § 3, we consider the possibility of imposing reliable constraints on $`w(z)`$ based on cosmological probes at high redshift, in particular gravitational lensing statistics. We follow the conventions that the Hubble constant, $`H_0`$, is 100 $`h`$ km s<sup>-1</sup> Mpc<sup>-1</sup>, the present matter energy density in units of the closure density is $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M`$, and the normalized present day energy density in the unknown component is $`\mathrm{\Omega }_Q`$.

## 2. Current Constraints on $`w(z)`$

Since a generic quintessence model has a time-varying equation of state, one should be able to distinguish it from models where the equation of state is time independent (e.g, Turner & White 1997). In this Letter, we write the equation of state of the unknown component as

$$w(z)w_0+z(dw/dz)_0.$$
(1)   
This relation should be a good approximation for most quintessence models out to redshift of a few and, of course, exact for models where $`w(z)`$ is a constant or changing slowly. Note that negative $`(dw/dz)_0`$ corresponds to an equation of state which is larger today compared to early epochs. Models where the scalar field is initially frozen typically exhibit such behavior, while for tracker field models $`(dw/dz)_0>0`$.

In order to constrain $`w(z)`$, we extend current published analyses which have so far considered the existence of a redshift-independent equation of state (e.g., Cooray 1999; Garnavich et al. 1998; Waga & Miceli 1998). Since the only difference between this study and previous ones is that we now allow $`w`$ to vary with $`z`$, formalisms presented in previous papers should also hold except for the fact that $`w`$ is now redshift dependent. We refer the reader to previous work for detailed formulae and calculational methods.

Fig. 1. Current constraints on $`w(z)w_0+z(dw/dz)_0`$. The dot-dashed lines are the current type Ia supernovae (Riess et al. 1998; Perlmutter et al. 1998) constraints at the 95% confidence level, while the upper limits from gravitational lensing statistics (Cooray 1999) is shown with solid lines. The age of the Universe as a function of $`H_0t_0`$ is show by dotted lines. A conservative lower limit on this parameter is 0.8 (dashed line) when age of the Universe is $``$ 14 to 15 Gyr and $`H_065`$ km s<sup>-1</sup> Mpc<sup>-1</sup>. The shaded region defines the parameter region allowed by current data. 

In Fig. 1 we summarize current constraints on $`w(z)`$ as given in Equation 1. Here we have assumed a flat Universe with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M=1/3`$. Evidence for such low matter density, independent of the nature of the additional energy component, comes primarily from the mass density within galaxy clusters (e.g., Evrard 1997). As shown in Fig 1, there is a wide range of possibilities for $`w(z)`$, and the allowed parameter space is consistent with the degeneracies discussed in literature (e.g., Zlatev et al. 1998). Even though the $`w1/3`$ model has been ruled out by combined type Ia supernovae, gravitational lensing and globular cluster ages, we now note that a model in which $`w_01/3`$ but $`(dw/dz)_00.9`$ is fully consistent with the current observational data.

In order to test whether one can constrain $`w(z)`$ better than the current data, we increased the Type Ia supernova sample between redshifts of 0.1 to 1; however, the degeneracy between $`w_0`$ and $`(dw/dz)_0`$ did not change appreciably. Increasing the upper redshift of supernova samples decreased the degeneracies; thus, cosmological probes at high redshifts are needed to properly distinguish redshift-dependent $`w(z)`$ from a constant $`w`$ model. A probe to a much higher redshift is provided by the CMB anisotropy data; however, as pointed out in Huterer & Turner (1998) and Huey et al. (1998), CMB anisotropy is not a strong probe of $`w(z)`$. This is due to the fact that $`w(z)`$ affects mostly the lower multipoles, which cannot be measured precisely due to cosmic variance. Also, supernovae and galaxy clusters are unlikely to constrain $`w(z)`$ in the near future given that current observational programs are not likely to recover them at high redshifts ($`z2`$).

Fig. 2. Expected number of multiply imaged quasars with image separations between 1 and 6 arcsecs in the SDSS data. We have only counted lensed quasars with at least two images greater than a magnitude limit of 21. The expected number is a constant along the $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ lines. For $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M=0.3`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7`$, we expect $``$ 2000 lensed sources to be detected within the SDSS. 

Thus, an alternative probe to high redshifts is needed. In the next section we consider the possibility of using gravitational lensing statistics, in particular the redshift distribution of strongly lensed sources, as a probe of $`w(z)`$. Such statistics in principle probe the volume of the Universe out to a redshift of $``$ 5. In the past, lensing statistics were hampered by the lack of large samples of lensed sources with a well known selection function and their redshift distributions, which are all needed to constrain $`w(z)`$. An exciting possibility is now provided by the upcoming high-quality data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey<sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>1http://www.sdss.org (SDSS; Gunn & Knapp 1993) which is going to image $`\pi `$ steradians of the sky down to a 1-$`\sigma `$ magnitude limit of $``$ 23. Since no high redshift ($`z2`$) cosmological probes yet exist, gravitational lensing statistics may be the prime candidate to study $`w(z)`$.

## 3. Gravitational Lensing Statistics

In order to calculate the expected number of lensed quasars, in particular considering the SDSS, we extend previous calculations in Wallington & Narayan (1993; also, Dodelson & MacMinn 1997) and Cheng & Krauss (1998). Our calculation follows that of Cooray et al. (1999) in which we calculated the number of lensed galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field. We follow the magnification bias (e.g., Kochanek 1991) calculation in Cheng & Krauss (1998). We calculate the expected number of lensed sources as a function of the magnitude limit of the SDSS and select sources with image separations between 1 and 6 arcsecs. This range is selected based on image resolution and source confusion limits. Our prediction, shown in Fig. 2 as a function of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, is based on current determination of the quasar luminosity function, which is likely to be updated once adequate quasars statistics are available from the SDSS.

As shown, there are about 2000 lensed quasars down to a limiting magnitude of 21 that could in principle be detected from the SDSS data if $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M=0.3`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7`$. This number drops to about $``$ 600 when $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M=1.0`$; however, such a cosmological model is already ruled out by current data. In this calculation, we have ignored effects due to extinction and dust; this is an issue with no consensus among various studies (Malhotra et al. 1997; Falco et al. 1998). It is likely that a combined analysis of statistics from ongoing lensed radio sources and optical searches may increase knowledge on such systematic effects. The SDSS lensed quasars lie in redshifts out to $`z`$ 5. Detection of such high redshift lensed sources is likely to be aided by the 5 color imaging data, including the $`z`$-filter. This possibility has already been demonstrated by the detection of some of the highest redshift quasars known today using the SDSS first year test images (Fan et al. 1998).

## 4. Lensing Constraints on $`w(z)`$: Prospects

In order to estimate the accuracy to which one can constrain $`w(z)`$ based on gravitational lensing statistics, we take a Fisher matrix approach with parameters $`w_0`$ and $`(dw/dz)_0`$, and assume a flat universe. As stated in literature (e.g., Tegmark et al. 1997), Fisher matrix analysis allows one to estimate the best statistical errors on parameters calculated from a given data set. The Fisher matrix $`F`$ is given by:

$$F_{ij}=\frac{^2\mathrm{ln}L}{p_ip_j}_𝐱,$$
(2)   
where $`L`$ is the likelihood of observing data set $`𝐱`$ given the parameters $`p_1\mathrm{}p_n`$.

We bin the observations (number of lensed quasars) in redshift bins of width $`\mathrm{\Delta }z`$ out to a maximum redshift $`z_{\mathrm{max}}`$. Since the selection function for quasar discovery process is still unknown, we adopt a Poisson likelihood function at each redshift bin $`\mathrm{\Delta }z`$ centered at redshift $`z`$. The expected number of lensed sources, $`N_{\mathrm{exp}}`$, in each redshift bin takes into account the magnitude limit, range of allowed image separations as well as the magnification bias. With these approximations, we can now write the Fisher matrix as:

$$F_{ij}=\underset{\mathrm{\Delta }z}{}\frac{1}{N_{\mathrm{exp}}(z,\mathrm{\Delta }z)}\frac{N_{\mathrm{exp}}(z,\mathrm{\Delta }z)}{p_i}\frac{N_{\mathrm{exp}}(z,\mathrm{\Delta }z)}{p_j}.$$
(3)   
This form for the Fisher matrix is identical to the one derived from a Gaussian distribution when the uncertainty ($`\sigma `$) of the distribution is taken to be equal to the shot-noise term $`\sqrt{N_{\mathrm{exp}}(z,\mathrm{\Delta }z)}`$.

Fig. 3. Constraints (2-$`\sigma `$) on $`w_0`$ and $`(dw/dz)_0`$ using lensed source redshift distribution expected from the SDSS for a fiducial cosmological model of $`w_0=1`$, $`(dw/dz)_0=0`$, and marginalised over $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M`$ ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_M=0.3\pm 0.1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_Q=1\mathrm{\Omega }_M`$). We show the expected 2$`\sigma `$ errors when the redshift distribution of lensed sources is known with an accuracy of 0.1 and 0.3 while the maximum redshift probed by lensing statistics is 3 and 5.  

In Fig. 3 we show the expected (2-$`\sigma `$) uncertainties in $`w_0`$ and $`(dw/dz)_0`$. Here we considered a flat universe with three parameters, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M`$, $`w_0`$, and $`(dw/dz)_0`$. We marginalised over $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M`$ allowing $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M=0.3\pm 0.1`$ (1-$`\sigma `$) and considered a fiducial model with $`w_0=1`$ and $`(dw/dz)_0=0`$. The three curves in Fig. 3 show variation of the constraint region with the redshift bin width $`\mathrm{\Delta }z`$ (which is roughly equal to the uncertainty in the redshift determination) and with the maximum redshift of detected quasars $`z_{\mathrm{max}}`$. Photometric redshifts now allow redshift determinations with an accuracy of order 0.1 68% of the time and of order 0.3 100% of the time (e.g., Hogg et al. 1998). It is apparent that the size of the constraint region decreases significantly with increasing $`z_{\mathrm{max}}`$ and decreasing $`\mathrm{\Delta }z`$. Note that one can quite safely assume that $`z_{\mathrm{max}}5`$ for quasars in a survey such as the SDSS. Additionally, these calculations assume a limiting magnitude of 21, much lower than the expected 1-$`\sigma `$ limiting magnitude of 23 for the SDSS data.

Fig. 4. Constraints (2-$`\sigma `$) on $`w_0`$ and $`(dw/dz)_0`$ using lensed source redshift distribution expected from the SDSS for four fiducial cosmological models when redshift of lensed sources is known with an accuracy of 0.3 out to a redshift of 5. In all cases we assumed a flat universe and marginalised over $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M`$ ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_M=0.3\pm 0.1`$).  

Fig. 4 shows constraints in the $`w_0`$$`(dw/dz)_0`$ plane for four fiducial models. Models shown are the cosmological constant ($`w(z)=1`$), non-Abelian cosmic strings ($`w(z)=1/3`$; Spergel & Pen 1997) and two quintessence models exhibiting a variation in $`w`$ at small $`z`$ ($`w(z)=0.5+0.1z`$ and $`w(z)=0.50.05z`$). In all cases we assumed a flat universe and marginalised over $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M`$ ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_M=0.3\pm 0.1`$). We also assumed that redshifts of lensed objects are determined with an accuracy $`\mathrm{\Delta }z=0.3`$ and that we have data out to redshift of $`z_{\mathrm{max}}=5`$. This figure shows that the strength of the constraints depends strongly on the fiducial model. In fact, we found that fiducial models for which $`w_0+z(dw/dz)_01`$ (for $`z`$ of order unity) give weaker constraints. This result is not surprising and can be understood by simply using the fact that number of lensed objects out to a redshift of $`z`$ is roughly proportional to the volume of the universe $`V(z)`$. Since $`dV/dp_i`$ (where $`p_i`$ is either $`w_0`$ or $`(dw/dz)_0`$) is proportional to $`(1+z)^{1+w_0+z(dw/dz)_0}`$, we see that the expected number of lensed quasars varies slowly with $`p_i`$ if $`w_0+z(dw/dz)_01`$. In that case, our constraint region will be relatively large.

## 5. Summary & Conclusions

In this Letter, we considered the possibility of constraining quintessence models that have been suggested to explain the missing energy density of the Universe. We suggested gravitational lensing statistics, which can be used as a probe of the equation of state of the missing component, $`w(z)`$. An exciting possibility to obtain an adequate sample of lensed quasars and their redshifts comes from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Writing $`w(z)w_0+z(dw/dz)_0`$, we studied the expected accuracy to which equation of state today $`w_0`$ and its rate of change $`(dw/dz)_0`$ can simultaneously be constrained. Adopting some conservative assumptions about the quality of the data from SDSS and assuming a flat universe with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M=0.3\pm 0.1`$, we conclude that tight constraints on these two parameters can indeed be obtained. The strength of the constraints depends not only on the quality of the lensing data from the SDSS, but also on the fiducial model (true values of $`w_0`$ and $`(dw/dz)_0`$). In particular, fiducial models for which $`w_0+z(dw/dz)_01`$ (for $`z`$ of order unity) give weaker constraints on $`w_0`$ and $`(dw/dz)_0`$.

We would like to thank Scott Dodelson, Josh Frieman, Lloyd Knox, Cole Miller, Jean Quashnock and Michael Turner for useful discussions. ARC acknowledges support from McCormick Fellowship at the University of Chicago. We also thank the anonymous referee for his/her prompt refereeing of the paper.