Gravitational lensing of type Ia supernovae

Recently, Holt and Wald [Phys. Rev. D 58 (1998) 063501] have presented a method for determining gravitational lensing effects in inhomogeneous universes. Their use of realistic galaxy models has been limited to the singular, truncated isothermal sphere with a fixed mass. In this paper, their method is generalized to allow for matter distributions more accurately describing the actual properties of galaxies, as derived from observations and N-body simulations. This includes the density profile proposed by Navarro, Frenk and White, as well as a distribution of galaxy masses. As an example of the possible applications of the method, we consider lensing effects on supernova luminosity distributions. We find that results for different mass distributions of smooth dark matter halos are very similar, making lensing effects predictable for a broad range of halo profiles. We also note, in agreement with other investigations, that one should be able to discriminate smooth halos from a dominant component of dark matter in compact objects. For instance, a sample of 100 supernovae at redshift z = 1 can, with 99% certainty, discriminate the case where all matter is in compact objects from the case where matter is in smooth halos. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.