New methods for deriving cluster mass profiles and the cosmological parameters applied to deep ACS+Subaru+VLT observations

We show how to reliably identify the counter-images of resolved background sources lensed by galaxy clusters. Nearly all the faint objects lying inside the Einstein radius of A1689 have been matched up with their lensed counter-images in deep ACS observations, totaling 120 multiply-lensed images belonging to 37 background galaxies. Wide-field Subaru data allows the outer mass profile of A1689 to be derived by combining the lens magnification and distortion of weakly lensed galaxies, via a model independent expression for the local projected mass. The entire mass profile of A1689 is then constructed from the weak and strong lensing results, and found to be NFW-like in form, but with a surprisingly high concentration (C=14±1.5), indicating perhaps that clusters formed earlier than predicted in the standard Λ-CDM model. For the first time we detect the purely geometric scaling of the lens deflection angle with increasing source redshift, for 2 clusters. A useful constraint on Ωλ is obtained this way for the cluster SDSS1004+41 (z=0.68) which we find has several multiply-lensed galaxies, in addition to the bright quadruple QSO, forming a nested set of lensed images of different redshifts. The images of the QSO at z=1.74 fall on an Einstein radius which is only 60% of the size of the Einstein radius of a more distant z=4 galaxy lensed by this cluster - an effect that depends only on the lens and source distances and hence on the cosmological model. Finally, a reliable gas temperature profile of A1689 is derived by a new "optical-SZ" method, applied to deep long-slit VLT observations, and agrees well with the lensing based mass profile, but with a somewhat higher mean temperature (13 keV) than X-ray measurements (8-10 keV).