Abstract

We cross-correlate a low-contamination subset of the VST ATLAS g < 22.5 quasar catalogue with g < 21.5 galaxy clusters, r < 21 galaxies and r < 19.5 luminous red galaxies (LRGs) to probe their halo mass profiles via quasar magnification bias caused by weak lensing. In the case of galaxy clusters, we find that at small scales their mass profiles are well fitted by Navarro, Frenk, and White models with masses within the expected range. For the galaxies, we find consistency with previous Sloan Digital Sky Survey-based results for the galaxy–quasar cross-correlation and the galaxy auto-correlation functions. Disagreement as to whether the cross-correlation results are in tension with Acold dark matter appears due to different assumptions as to whether galaxies trace mass. We conclude that halo occupation distribution (HOD) models fit the galaxy–quasar lensing results better than models where galaxies trace the mass. We further test the cluster and galaxy HOD models in the 2-halo range using the Planck cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing map, finding that the cross-correlation with both the poorest clusters and the galaxies may be marginally overpredicted by the above HOD models. Finally, we measure the magnification bias of LRGs using both quasar and CMB lensing and find that the observed quasar lensing amplitude may be 2x too high and, on larger scales, the CMB lensing amplitude may be too low to be explained by a standard LRG HOD model. © 2024 The Author(s).