Strong lensing efficiency of galaxy clusters in dark energy cosmologies

We study the efficiency for producing strong gravitational lensing
events of galaxy clusters numerically simulated in different dark-energy
cosmologies with constant and time-variable equation of state, and we
compare the results with those obtained in "standard" ΛCDM and
OCDM models. Our main results are (1) that the expected abundance of
gravitational arcs with large length-to-width ratio depends on the
equation of state of dark energy at the epoch of formation of the halo;
and (2) that the high sensitivity of strong-lensing cross sections of
galaxy clusters to dynamical processes like mergers, which was found in
earlier studies, varies substantially between different cosmologies,
being stronger for models in which halos are less concentrated. As
expected, the largest differences in the lensing optical depth occur at
intermediate and high redshift.