Weak lensing measurement of galaxy clusters in the CFHTLS-wide survey

We present the first weak gravitational lensing analysis of the completed Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS). We study the 64 deg 2 W1 field, the largest of the CFHTLS-Wide survey fields, and present the largest contiguous weak lensing convergence "mass map" yet made. 2.66 million galaxy shapes are measured, using the Kaiser Squires and Broadhurst Method (KSB) pipeline verified against high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope imaging that covers part of the CFHTLS. Our i′-band measurements are also consistent with an analysis of independent r′-band imaging. The reconstructed lensing convergence map contains 301 peaks with signal-to-noise ratio ν > 3.5, consistent with predictions of a ΛCDM model. Of these peaks, 126 lie within 30 of a brightest central galaxy identified from multicolor optical imaging in an independent, red sequence survey. We also identify seven counterparts for massive clusters previously seen in X-ray emission within 6 deg2 XMM-LSS survey. With photometric redshift estimates for the source galaxies, we use a tomographic lensing method to fit the redshift and mass of each convergence peak. Matching these to the optical observations, we confirm 85 groups/clusters with χ2 reduced < 3.0, at a mean redshift 〈zc 〉 = 0.36 and velocity dispersion 〈σc〉 = 658.8 km s -1. Future surveys, such as DES, LSST, KDUST, and EUCLID, will be able to apply these techniques to map clusters in much larger volumes and thus tightly constrain cosmological models. © 2012 The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.