# Cluster-Cluster Strong Lensing: Expectations and Detection Methods

## 1 Introduction

It is now well known that the incidence of gravitational lensing depends strongly on the cosmological constant, while the number density of galaxy clusters, especially at high redshifts, depends mostly on the total mass density of the universe. Therefore, cluster abundances and gravitational lensing together constrain both the cosmological constant and the mass density of the universe. One may then expect the lensing of background clusters by foreground clusters to yield important information on these two cosmological parameters.

Clusters gravitationally lens background sources, such as galaxies, into luminous optical arcs. Cooray (1999; hereafter C99) has calculated the all-sky number of lensed arcs due to foreground massive clusters. We extend the analysis in C99 to study a unique situation where a background cluster is strongly lensed by a massive foreground cluster. Such lensing events occur when the two clusters lie along the same line of sight. Given that the number density of clusters is small compared to that of galaxies, we expect such cluster-cluster lensing events to be rare. However, during the next decade several new missions are expected to survey large portions of the sky, over a wide range of wavelengths ranging from radio to X-ray, making detection of a cluster-cluster lensing event possible.

Here, we calculate the all-sky number of background galaxy clusters that are expected to be lensed by massive foreground clusters, in different cosmological models. We describe galaxy clusters with a Press-Schechter analysis (Press & Schechter 1974; hereafter PS) normalized by the local cluster temperature function, and model the foreground lensing clusters as singular isothermal spheres (SIS).

In § 2 we present our calculation and discuss possible systematic errors affecting it. In § 3 we examine possible techniques designed to detect cluster-cluster strong lensing events, using optical, X-ray, and Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (SZ) effect observations. In § 4 we briefly consider the possibility that cluster Cl0024+17 has gravitationally lensed a background cluster, and summarize our results in § 5. We follow the conventions that the Hubble constant, $`H_0`$, is 100 $`h`$ km s<sup>-1</sup> Mpc<sup>-1</sup>, the present mean density of the universe in units of the closure density is $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$, and the present normalized cosmological constant is $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. In a flat universe, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m+\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=1`$.

## 2 Expected Number of Lensed Clusters

In order to calculate the number of background clusters lensed by foreground galaxy clusters, we model the lensing clusters as singular isothermal spheres (SIS), and use the analytical filled-beam approximation (Fukugita et al. 1992). The SIS approximation to describe effective lensing cross section of clusters should be valid given that the current observations only support a small or zero core radius for the dark matter distribution within galaxy clusters. We refer the reader to the works of Cooray, Quashnock, & Miller (1999) and C99 for details of the lensing calculation, in the context of background galaxies gravitationally lensed by foreground galaxies or galaxy clusters, respectively. In both these studies, the redshift and magnitude distributions of optical sources observed in the Hubble Deep Field (Williams et al. 1996) is taken to describe the background objects. Unfortunately, we do not have a comparable understanding of the distribution of background clusters, since the observational data on the density of high redshift clusters are limited; here, we use the PS theory to calculate the redshift distribution.

Because clusters can be studied at various wavelengths, via optical, X-ray and radio (e.g., SZ effect) observations, we ignore the effects of “magnification bias” in the present calculation. This systematic effect, which arises in flux- or magnitude-limited surveys, is wavelength dependent. While our present calculation assumes a 100% efficiency in detecting cluster-cluster lensing events, it must be corrected to include magnification bias for each particular observational program depending on the technique used to recover cluster-cluster lensing events.

### 2.1 Calculation method

We derive the number density of galaxy clusters, $`dn(M,z)`$, between mass range $`(M,M+dM)`$, from a PS analysis:

$$\frac{dn(M,z)}{dM}=$$
(1)   
$`\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\pi }}}{\displaystyle \frac{\overline{\rho }(z)}{M}}{\displaystyle \frac{d\sigma (M,z)}{dM}}{\displaystyle \frac{\delta _c}{\sigma ^2(M,z)}}\mathrm{exp}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\delta _c^2}{2\sigma ^2(M,z)}}\right],`$   
where $`\overline{\rho }(z)`$ is the mean background density at redshift $`z`$, $`\sigma ^2(M,z)`$ is the variance of the fluctuation spectrum averaged over a mass scale $`M`$, and $`\delta _c`$ is the linear over-density of a perturbation which has collapsed and virialized. Following Viana & Liddle (1996), we take

$$\sigma (R,z)=\sigma _8(z)\left(\frac{R}{8h^1\mathrm{Mpc}}\right)^{\gamma (R)},$$
(2)   
where

$$\gamma (R)=(0.3\mathrm{\Gamma }+0.2)\left[2.92+\mathrm{log}_{10}\left(\frac{R}{8h^1\mathrm{Mpc}}\right)\right].$$
(3)   
The comoving radius $`R`$ is the radius which contains mass $`M`$ at the current epoch, while $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is the usual CDM shape parameter, taken to be 0.23. Our presented results are fairly insensitive to the exact choice of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$.

In an Einstein-de Sitter universe ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=1,\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0`$), $`\sigma _8(1+z)^1`$. Following Carroll, Press & Turner (1992), we can express growth in alternate cosmologies by a growth suppression factor, which is approximately given by

$$g(\mathrm{\Omega }_m)=\frac{5}{2}\mathrm{\Omega }_m\left[\mathrm{\Omega }_m^{4/7}\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }+\left(1+\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_m}{2}\right)\left(1+\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }}{70}\right)\right]^1.$$
(4)   
In this notation, we can now express the growth law as

$$\sigma _8(z)=\frac{\sigma _8(0)}{1+z}\frac{g(\mathrm{\Omega }_m(z))}{g(\mathrm{\Omega }_m(0))},$$
(5)   
where we now use the determination of Viana & Liddle (1998) for $`\sigma _8(0)`$:

$$\sigma _8(0)=\{\begin{array}{cc}0.56\mathrm{\Omega }_m^{0.34}& (\mathrm{open})\\ 0.56\mathrm{\Omega }_m^{0.47}& (\mathrm{flat})\end{array}$$
(6)   
The probability of strong lensing depends on both the number density and typical mass of galaxy clusters. For SIS models, this overall factor for the lensing probability is given by the dimensionless parameter (Turner, Ostriker & Gott 1984):

$$F16\pi ^3nR_0^3\left(\frac{\sigma _{\mathrm{vel}}}{c}\right)^4,$$
(7)   
where $`n`$ is the number density of galaxy clusters, $`R_0c/H_0`$, and $`\sigma _{\mathrm{vel}}`$ is the velocity dispersion. In order to calculate the parameter $`F`$, we use the observationally determined scaling relation between $`\sigma _{\mathrm{vel}}`$ and the cluster temperature, $`T`$ (Girardi et al. 1996),

$$\sigma _{\mathrm{vel}}(T)=10^{2.56\pm 0.03}\times \left(\frac{T}{\mathrm{keV}}\right)^{0.56\pm 0.05},$$
(8)   
and the relation between $`T`$ and cluster mass $`M`$ (Bartlett 1997),

$$T(M,z)=6.4h^{2/3}\left(\frac{M}{10^{15}M_{\mathrm{}}}\right)^{\frac{2}{3}}(1+z)\mathrm{keV},$$
(9)   
to derive a relation between $`\sigma _{\mathrm{vel}}`$ and cluster mass $`M`$, $`\sigma _{\mathrm{vel}}(M)`$. Finally, we can write the parameter $`F`$ as a function of the lens redshift, $`z_l`$:

$$F(z_l)=\frac{16\pi ^3}{cH_0^3}_{M_{\mathrm{min}}}^{\mathrm{}}\sigma _{\mathrm{vel}}(M^{})^4\frac{dn(M^{},z_l)}{dM^{}}𝑑M^{}.$$
(10)   
In order to calculate the number of lensed clusters, we compute $`F(z_l)`$, the mean value of $`F(z_l)`$, which is obtained by weighting the above integral over the redshift distribution of galaxy clusters derived using the PS theory. In order to calculate the number of background lensed clusters towards a sample of X-ray selected clusters with luminosity $`L_x`$, we also need a relation between $`M`$ and $`L_x`$. We obtain this relation by combining the observed $`L_xT`$ relation, recently derived by Arnaud & Evrard (1998),

$$L_x=10^{45.06\pm 0.03}\times \left(\frac{T}{6\mathrm{kev}}\right)^{2.88\pm 0.15}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.25}h^2\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{s}^1,$$
(11)   
and the $`MT`$ relation in Eq. 11. Combining $`\sigma _{\mathrm{vel}}(M)`$ and $`dn(M,z)/dM`$, and using a minimum mass $`M_{\mathrm{min}}`$ of $`7.5\times 10^{14}M_{\mathrm{}}`$, corresponding to $`L_{\mathrm{min}}`$ of $`8\times 10^{44}h^2\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{s}^1`$ in the 2-10 keV band, we find $`F(z_l)`$ to range from $``$ $`4\times 10^6`$, when $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=1`$, to $``$ $`7\times 10^4`$, when $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=0.1`$. This strong variation results from the combined dependences of the lensing probability and the cluster density evolution on the cosmological parameters.

In this calculation and in our results below, we have taken the background clusters to be point sources, since Eq. 7 gives the probability of lensing solely in terms of the Einstein radius of the lensing cluster. However, background galaxy clusters have finite angular size, and this could have an effect on our calculation, since partial overlap of the background cluster with the Einstein radius of the foreground galaxy might still constitute and be defined as a cluster-cluster lensing event. Unfortunately, the exact amplitude of this effect is uncertain, since it depends on what we define as a lensing event: Do we require that half or more of the constituent emission of the background cluster be inside the Einstein radius? What fraction of the background cluster should be lensed in order to constitute a detectable lensing event?

Because of these ambiguities and the additional complications that they introduce in the computation, we have not included them here. Nevertheless, we have estimated the approximate amplitude of the finite-angular-size effect by considering the typical overlap between a lensed background cluster ($`z1.5`$) and the Einstein radius of a lensing foreground galaxy ($`z_l0.4`$), where an overlap is defined as meaning that more than half of the emission of the background cluster is inside the Einstein radius. We have examined this effect for different values of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ in a flat universe, thus including the dependence of the angular diameter distance on the mean mass density.

We find that the net effect is to increase the rate of lensing, and hence the all-sky number of cluster-cluster lensing events, by about a factor of two (ranging from 1.8 in a low-density universe to about 2.2 in an Einstein-de Sitter universe). This is small compared to other systematic uncertainties in our calculation (see Fig. 1 below); furthermore, the 20% change in the factor is small compared to the overall dependence of the number of lensed clusters on the cosmological parameters. Thus, our main conclusions are not significantly affected by ignoring the finite angular size of background clusters.

### 2.2 Results

Using cluster abundances at high redshift, we have calculated the expected all-sky number of background clusters that are gravitationally lensed by foreground clusters. In Figure 1, we show our results as a function of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ for flat ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_m+\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=1`$; solid lines) and open ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0`$; dashed lines) cosmologies. The two curves for each of these cases bound the 95% confidence range in the expected number of cluster-cluster lensing events based on the uncertainties associated with $`\sigma _8(0)`$ and scaling relations (see, § 2.3).

In all cases, foreground lensing clusters are taken to have X-ray luminosities greater than $`8\times 10^{44}h^2\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{s}^1`$ in the 2 to 10 keV band. There are expected to be about 8000 $`\pm `$ 1000 such clusters on the whole sky (Bartelmann et al. 1997).

As shown in Fig. 1, the all-sky number of lensed background clusters is not very large: Anywhere from about 0.7 to 60 lensed clusters with mass greater than $`10^{14}h^1M_{\mathrm{}}`$ are expected in a universe with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=0.3`$, with a higher number in a flat universe than in an open universe.

The expected all-sky number of lensed clusters is significantly greater than unity only in flat universes with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m<0.5`$ or in open universes with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m<0.3`$. Even though the lensing rate for background clusters is small, the detection of even a single cluster-cluster lensing event provides strong evidence against a high-density universe ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_m1`$), since in such a universe the expected number is essentially zero.

If $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ is known a priori and is fairly low, the effect of the cosmological constant is noticeable, and the cluster-cluster lensing rate could be a useful tool for differentiating between a flat universe with a cosmological constant and an open one. At this point, uncertainties in the predictions are dominated by the uncertainty in $`\sigma _8`$. Improvements in this determination will strongly increase the power of this test.

In general there are at most of order 0.005 to 0.05 lensed background clusters per foreground cluster. In contrast, there are 0.2 to 0.4 gravitationally lensed arcs (with amplification greater than 10) per foreground cluster, with the same criteria for lensing, down to a R band magnitude of $``$ 21.5. Thus, the cluster-cluster lensing rate is considerably smaller, and a survey of area $`>1000`$ deg<sup>2</sup> will be required to find such an event, if we happen to live in a low-density universe with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m<0.6`$.

From the redshift distribution of background clusters, as given by the PS analysis, we find that most of the lensed clusters are at redshifts between 1.0 and 1.6, while the foreground lensing clusters are at redshifts between 0.2 and 0.6. This is important when considering observational programs designed to find cluster-cluster lensing events, given the sensitivities of current and planned surveys (see § 3 below).

### 2.3 Uncertainties

A major source of statistical uncertainty in the calculation comes from the accuracy of $`\sigma _8(0)`$ as determined by Viana & Liddle (1998): The relative uncertainty in $`\sigma _8(0)`$ (95% confidence) is quoted as $`+20\mathrm{\Omega }_m^{0.1\mathrm{log}_{10}\mathrm{\Omega }_m}`$ % and $`18\mathrm{\Omega }_m^{0.1\mathrm{log}_{10}\mathrm{\Omega }_m}`$ % for the open case, and $`+20\mathrm{\Omega }_m^{0.2\mathrm{log}_{10}\mathrm{\Omega }_m}`$ % and $`18\mathrm{\Omega }_m^{0.2\mathrm{log}_{10}\mathrm{\Omega }_m}`$ % for the flat case. This uncertainty in $`\sigma _8(0)`$ dominates that of the scaling relations as determined based on observed data. We have included the uncertainty in $`\sigma _8(0)`$ and that of scaling relations, to be complete, in our calculation to determine their effects on our prediction. As shown in Fig. 1, the uncertainty in $`\sigma _8(0)`$, as well as the ones involved with the scaling relations, suggest that one may not be able to distinguish between high $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ universes, whether spatially flat or open. For low $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ values, the uncertainties are still high, but reliable statistics on the cluster-cluster lensing events are able to distinguish between open and flat cosmologies, assuming $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m`$ is roughly known.

For this calculation we have used the most conservative estimate on $`\sigma _8(0)`$ and its uncertainty available from the literature. It is likely that with better statistics on cluster abundances at high redshift, $`\sigma _8(0)`$ will be known more accurately in the future. If that is the case, cluster-cluster lensing events could be a strong probe of the existence of a cosmological constant.

A possible systematic effect that can affect the large dependence of the predicted numbers on the cosmological parameters comes from the effect of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ on cluster formation: Clusters may be less compact in a universe with a non-zero cosmological constant (Bartelmann et al. 1997). Such effects can only be explored with numerical simulations. Based on numerical simulations performed by the Virgo Consortium, Thomas et al. (1998) studied a series of clusters in four different cosmologies, including an open model with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=0.3`$ and a flat model with a cosmological constant of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7`$. The authors concluded that clusters do not exhibit differences between open and flat cosmologies with and without a cosmological constant and that cluster structures cannot be used to discriminate between the two possibilities. If Thomas et al. (1998) are correct, then the inclusion of a cosmological constant is not expected to change cluster mass profiles to an extent that would affect the gravitational lensing rate. In any case, such systematic effects are unlikely to be nearly as large as the current uncertainty in $`\sigma _8`$.

## 3 Detecting Gravitationally Lensed Background Clusters

Optical Data—Since most of the studies of foreground galaxy cluster lenses are made using optical images, it may be possible to find cluster-cluster lensing events by analyzing the gravitational lensing data around known foreground cluster lenses. A lensing model of the observed distribution of arcs can be used to estimate the redshifts of the background galaxies. The number density of lensed galaxies and their optical properties, such as clustering properties and number counts, may provide additional information needed to discern the possible clustering of the lensed galaxies as would be expected from a background cluster. The properties of such galaxies should be similar to those of cluster member galaxies, among which effects such as the Butcher-Oemler effect may be important. Spectroscopic observations of background lensed galaxies can then be used to determine their exact redshifts, and to recover the galaxy distribution within the background clusters.

In the near future, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) will take both imaging and spectroscopic data over a quarter of the sky. It is likely that the SDSS will image most of the foreground lensing clusters within this sky area. However, given that lensed background clusters are expected to be at redshifts greater than 1, and considering the resolution of SDSS observations and the complexity of cluster-cluster lensing events, it is not likely that direct detection of a cluster-cluster lensing event will be possible with the imaging data alone. The SDSS spectroscopic survey is not expected to observe galaxies at redshifts greater than $``$ 0.2; thus, analysis of the 5 color data will be required in deducing the photometric redshifts of foreground lensing clusters. The same photometric data should allow the redshift determination of background lensed sources, but these may be limited to high magnification arcs. Thus optical follow-up data may be necessary to identify cluster-cluster lensing events. However, the SDSS can be used as a starting point to select candidate cluster-cluster lensing events, which could be followed up at higher resolution with other telescopes, and at other wavelengths.

X-ray Data—At X-ray wavelengths, one may detect redshifted Fe lines associated with the background cluster X-ray emission, which would be amplified by passing through the gravitational potential of the foreground cluster. Unfortunately, current instruments aboard X-ray satellites are not sensitive to emission from galaxy clusters at redshifts greater than $``$ 1, because of the $`(1+z)^3`$ fall off of the thermal bremsstrahlung flux at redshift $`z>1`$. Therefore, it is unlikely that cluster-cluster lensing events can be detected with current cluster observations, unless the background cluster is significantly magnified.

This situation will soon change with instruments aboard the Chandra X-ray Observatory (formerly AXAF), in particular the CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS), which can image an area of $`16.9\times 16.9`$ arcmin<sup>2</sup>, in the 0.2 to 10 keV band, with a point spread function of $`0\stackrel{}{.}5`$ (FWHM). The ACIS allows detection of point sources down to $`2\times 10^{15}`$ ergs cm<sup>-2</sup> s<sup>-1</sup> in an image with exposure time of 10<sup>5</sup> seconds at the 5$`\sigma `$ level<sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>1AXAF Observatory Guide 1997, AXAF Science Center, available at http://asc.harvard.edu/USG/docs/docs.html. The CCDs have an intrinsic energy resolution $`E/\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ of $``$ 5 to 50 across the energy band, and when combined with the High Energy Transmission Gratings (HETG), the ACIS spectroscopic arrays are expected to provide resolutions, $`E/\mathrm{\Delta }E`$, as high as 1000. For example, the planned 100 ksec GTO observation of lensing by the well-known cluster A370 can be used to detect any lensed cluster along the line of sight out to at least a redshift of $``$ 1.5, ignoring any amplification of such a cluster due to gravitational lensing. However, even if such background emission exists, it may very well be confused with emission from the foreground cluster. The best approach, then, is to look for redshifted lines, such as the Fe K-line, in the spectroscopic data.<sup>2</sup><sup>2</sup>2While preparing this work, we learned of a proposal to search, with ASCA (Watanabe et al. 1997), for a redshifted Fe K-line that would be a signature of a background cluster behind Cl0024+17.

SZ Data—Unlike the X-ray, where the intensity detected decreases with increase in redshift, the SZ effect (Sunyaev & Zel’dovich 1980) in principle can detect, independent of redshift, background clusters that have been lensed by a foreground cluster. Because the X-ray emission falls off as $`(1+z)^3`$ and the SZ effect does not strongly depend on redshift, the total CMBR temperature change due to the SZ effect along the line of sight of two clusters at different redshifts is different from what is inferred from the total X-ray emission observed alone. Thus, combining the SZ data with X-ray observations provides a strong tool to recover background clusters. An efficient method to recover cluster-cluster lensing events is to study X-ray/SZ correlations or cross-correlate a large area SZ survey with X-ray observations, to find clusters that deviate from such relations. The SZ cluster catalog that is expected to be produced by Planck and the large area X-ray survey with XMM may afford us with such a possibility.

## 4 Cl0024+27: Possible Cluster-Cluster Lensing Event?

The redshift distribution of the lensed galaxies behind Cl0024+17 has been estimated by Fort, Mellier & Dantel-Fort (1997). The analysis by Fort et al. (1997) suggests two groups of sources, one with 60% $`\pm `$ 10% of background sources at redshifts between 0.9 and 1.1 and another with 40% $`\pm `$ 10% of the background sources at redshifts $``$ 3. The population at $`z`$ 1 is more interesting: Could it consist of a background cluster that has been lensed by Cl0024+17?

Cl0024+17 is being observed interferometrically with the BIMA array at 28.5 GHz, as part of an SZ cluster survey (e.g., Carlstrom, Joy, & Grego 1996). A comparison of these recent interferometric SZ images with X-ray data may yield important information on the cluster gas properties of Cl0024+17. These inferred cluster gas properties could appear significantly different than those of most other clusters, if there is a lensed background cluster behind Cl0024+17.

If Cl0024+17 has lensed a background cluster, then the mass and redshift of this lensed cluster can be used to constrain the cosmological parameters; unfortunately, both these quantities are not currently known, so we leave this task to be carried out in a future paper.

## 5 Summary

Using the redshift distribution of background galaxy clusters obtained using the Press-Schechter formalism, we have calculated the expected all-sky number of cluster-cluster lensing events. The number in an open cosmology with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=0.3`$ is between 1 and 10, for background clusters with total masses greater than $`10^{14}h^1M_{\mathrm{}}`$, with the expected number counts increasing to be between 10 and 100 for the corresponding low-density flat universe. In general, a significantly higher number is expected in a universe with a cosmological constant, with this difference becoming larger at lower matter densities.

Lensed background clusters may be found in optical wavelengths from an analysis of lensing and spectroscopic data. At X-ray wavelengths, spectroscopic observations can be used to observe redshifted Fe lines from the background cluster. The most efficient method to find these rare cluster-cluster events is to correlate a large area SZ survey of clusters, such as from Planck, with a similar survey in X-ray wavelengths, such as from XMM. The mass and redshift of such a lensed cluster can be used to constrain the cosmological parameters.

## Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge useful discussions with John Carlstrom, and Cole Miller. We would also like to thank the referee, Yannick Mellier, for detailed comments on our paper. This work was supported in part by NASA grant NAG 5-4406 and NSF grant DMS 97-09696 (JMQ), and by NASA grant NAG 5-2788 and the DOE (GPH). ARC acknowledges partial support from the McCormick Fellowship at the University of Chicago, and a Grant-In-Aid of Research from the National Academy of Sciences, awarded through Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society.