  We investigate the correlations in galaxy shapes between optical and radio
wavelengths using archival observations of the COSMOS field. Cross-correlation
studies between different wavebands will become increasingly important for
precision cosmology as future large surveys may be dominated by systematic
rather than statistical errors. In the case of weak lensing, galaxy shapes must
be measured to extraordinary accuracy (shear systematics of $< 0.01\%$) in
order to achieve good constraints on dark energy parameters. By using shape
information from overlapping surveys in optical and radio bands, robustness to
systematics may be significantly improved without loss of constraining power.
Here we use HST-ACS optical data, VLA radio data, and extensive simulations to
investigate both our ability to make precision measurements of source shapes
from realistic radio data, and to constrain the intrinsic astrophysical scatter
between the shapes of galaxies as measured in the optical and radio wavebands.
By producing a new image from the VLA-COSMOS L-band radio visibility data that
is well suited to galaxy shape measurements, we are able to extract precise
measurements of galaxy position angles. Comparing to corresponding measurements
from the HST optical image, we set a lower limit on the intrinsic astrophysical
scatter in position angles, between the optical and radio bands, of
$\sigma_\alpha > 0.212\pi$ radians (or $38.2^{\circ}$) at a $95\%$ confidence
level.
