The main obstacle for gravitational lensing to determine accurate masses of deflectors, or to determine precise estimates for the Hubble constant, is the degeneracy of lensing observables with respect to the mass-sheet transformation (MST). The MST is a global modification of the mass distribution which leaves all image positions, shapes and flux ratios invariant, but which changes the time delay. Here we show that another global transformation of lensing mass distributions exists which almost leaves image positions and flux ratios invariant, and of which the MST is a special case. Whereas for axi-symmetric lenses this source position transformation exactly reproduces all strong lensing observables, it does so only approximately for more general lens situations. We provide crude estimates for the accuracy with which the transformed mass distribution can reproduce the same image positions as the original lens model, and present an illustrative example of its performance. This new invariance transformation most likely is the reason why the same strong lensing information can be accounted for with rather different mass models.
Consistency testing for invariance of the speed of light at different redshifts: the newest results from strong lensing and type Ia supernovae observations
We derive stringent constraints on neutrino speed, weak equivalence principle violation, Lorentz invariance violation, and dual lensing from the first high-energy astrophysical neutrino source: TXS 0506+056. Observation of neutrino (IceCube-170922A) and photons in a similar time frame and from the same direction is used to derive these limits. We describe ways in which these constraints can be further improved by orders of magnitude.
Detecting gravitational lensing by matter currents
Université Paris-Saclay（巴黎萨克雷大学）；Université Paris Cité（巴黎西岱大学）；CEA（法国原子能和替代能源委员会）；CNRS（法国国家科学研究中心）；AIM（天体物理学、物质与相互作用研究所）；Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Sussex（苏塞克斯大学物理与天文系）
Approximate methods to full N-body simulations provide a fast and accurate solution to the development of mock catalogues for the modeling of galaxy clustering observables. In this paper we extend ICE-COLA (Izard et al. 2016), based on an optimized implementation of the approximate COLA method, to produce weak lensing maps and halo catalogues in the light cone using an integrated and self consistent approach. We show that despite the approximate dynamics, the catalogues thus produced enable an accurate modeling of weak lensing observables one decade beyond the characteristic scale where the gr…
Weak gravitational lensing is one of the few direct methods to map the dark-matter distribution on large scales in the Universe, and to estimate cosmological parameters. We study a Bayesian inference problem where the data covariance $\mathbf{C}$, estimated from a number $n_{\textrm{s}}$ of numerical simulations, is singular. In a cosmological context of large-scale structure observations, the creation of a large number of such $N$-body simulations is often prohibitively expensive. Inference based on a likelihood function often includes a precision matrix, $Ψ= \mathbf{C}^{-1}$. The covariance …
We investigate the validity of the approximate method to describe a strong gravitational lensing which was extended by Alard on the basis of a perturbative approach to an Einstein ring. Adopting an elliptical Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) lens model, we demonstrate how the approximate method works, focusing on the shape of the image, the magnification, caustics, and the critical line. Simplicity of the approximate method enables us to investigate the lensing phenomena in an analytic way. We derive simple approximate formulas which characterise a lens system near the Einstein ring.
Approximately half of the Universe's baryons are in a form that has been hard to detect directly. However, the missing component can be traced through the cross-correlation of the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (tSZ) effect with weak gravitational lensing. We build a model for this correlation and use it to constrain the extended baryon component, employing data from the Canada France Hawaii Lensing Survey and the {\it Planck\/} satellite. The measured correlation function is consistent with an isothermal $β$-model for the halo gas pressure profile, and the 1- and 2-halo terms are both detected at …
We propose a new model-independent strategy to calibrate the distance relation in Type Ia supernova (SN) observations and to probe the intrinsic properties of SNe Ia, especially the absolute magnitude $M_B$, basing on strong lensing observations in the upcoming Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) era. The strongly lensed quasars can provide the Time Delay Distances (TDD) and the Angular Diameter Distances (ADD) to the lens galaxies. These absolute distance measurements can model-independently anchor the SNe Ia at cosmological distances. We simulated 55 high-quality lensing systems with $5\%…
Based on the standard gravitational lensing formalism with its effective, projected lensing potential in a given background cosmology, we investigate under which transformations of the source position and of the deflection angle the observable properties of the multiple images, i.e. the time delay differences, the relative image positions, relative shapes, and magnification ratios, remain invariant. As these observables only constrain local lens properties, we derive general, local invariance transformations in the areas covered by the multiple images. We show that the known global invariance …
Extragalactic foregrounds in temperature maps of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) severely limit the ability of standard estimators to reconstruct the weak lensing potential. These foregrounds are not fully removable by multi-frequency cleaning or masking and can lead to large biases if not properly accounted for. For foregrounds made of a number of unclustered point sources, an estimator for the source amplitude can be derived and deprojected, removing any bias to the lensing reconstruction. We show with simulations that all of the extragalactic foregrounds in temperature can be approxim…
The dark halo substructures predicted by current cold dark matter simulations may in principle be detectable through strong-lensing image splitting of quasars on small angular scales (0.01 arcseconds or below). Here, we estimate the overall probabilities for lensing by substructures in a host halo closely aligned to the line of sight to a background quasar. Under the assumption that the quasar can be approximated as a point source, the optical depth for strong gravitational lensing by subhalos typically turns out to be very small (tau < 0.01), contrary to previous claims. We therefore conclude…
We discuss the phenomenology of gravitational lensing in the purely metric $f\left(χ\right)$ gravity, an $f(R)$ gravity where the action of the gravitational field depends on the source mass. We focus on the strong lensing regime in galaxy-galaxy lens systems and in clusters of galaxies. Using an approximate metric solution accurate to second order of the velocity field $v/c$, we show how, in the $f\left(χ\right)=χ^{3/2}$ gravity, the same light deflection can be produced by point-like lenses with masses smaller than in General Relativity; this mass difference increases with increasing impact …
Cosmological constraints from current and upcoming galaxy cluster surveys are limited by the accuracy of cluster mass calibration. In particular, optically identified galaxy clusters are prone to selection effects that can bias the weak lensing mass calibration. We investigate the selection bias of the stacked cluster lensing signal associated with optically selected clusters, using clusters identified by the redMaPPer algorithm in the Buzzard simulations as a case study. We find that at a given cluster halo mass, the residuals of redMaPPer richness and weak lensing signal are positively corre…
One of the major targets for next-generation cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments is the detection of the primordial B-mode signal. Planning is under way for Stage-IV experiments that are projected to have instrumental noise small enough to make lensing and foregrounds the dominant source of uncertainty for estimating the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ from polarization maps. This makes delensing a crucial part of future CMB polarization science. In this paper we present a likelihood method for estimating the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ from CMB polarization observations, which combines th…
Current optical imaging surveys for cosmology are covering large areas of sky. To exploit the statistical power of these surveys for weak lensing measurements requires shape measurement methods with subpercent systematic errors. We introduce a new weak lensing shear measurement algorithm, Shear Nulling after PSF Gaussianisation (SNAPG), designed to avoid the noise biases that affect most other methods. SNAPG operates on images that have been convolved with a kernel that renders the Point Spread Function (PSF) a circular Gaussian, and uses weighted second moments of the sources. The response of…
The coherent physical alignment of galaxies is an important systematic for gravitational lensing studies as well as a probe of the physical mechanisms involved in galaxy formation and evolution. We develop a formalism for treating this intrinsic alignment (IA) in the context of galaxy-galaxy lensing and present an improved method for measuring IA contamination, which can arise when sources physically associated with the lens are placed behind the lens due to photometric redshift scatter. We apply the technique to recent Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) measurements of Luminous Red Galaxy lenses…
The core mass of galaxy clusters is both an important anchor of the radial mass distribution profile and probe of structure formation. With thousands of strong lensing galaxy clusters being discovered by current and upcoming surveys, timely, efficient, and accurate core mass estimates are needed. We assess the results of two efficient methods to estimate the core mass of strong lensing clusters: the mass enclosed by the Einstein radius ($M_{corr}(<θ_E)$ where $θ_{\rm E}$ is approximated from arc positions; Remolina González et al. 2020), and single-halo lens model ($M_{\rm{SHM}}(<\rm{e}θ_{\rm{…
Halos formed in the standard Lambda cold dark matter framework should follow an universal mass density profile and fit a well defined mass-concentration relation. Lensing analyses of clusters with a large Einstein radius seem to contradict this scenario, with the massive cluster Abell 1689 being often claimed as a notable example of a highly over-concentrated halo. Shape and orientation biases in lensing studies might be at the basis of this disagreement between theory and observations. We developed a method for a full three-dimensional analysis of strong and weak lensing data. Surface density…
One application of the Cosmological Gravitational Lensing in General Relativity is the measurement of the Hubble constant H_0 using the time delay Delta t between multiple images of lensed quasars. This method has already been applied, obtaining a value of H_0 compatible with that obtained from the SNe 1A, but non compatible with that obtained studying the anisotropies of the CMB. This difference could be a statistical fluctuation or an indication of new physics beyond the Standard Model of Cosmology, so it desirable to improve the precision of the measurements. At the current technological ca…
In Hezaveh et al. 2017 we showed that deep learning can be used for model parameter estimation and trained convolutional neural networks to determine the parameters of strong gravitational lensing systems. Here we demonstrate a method for obtaining the uncertainties of these parameters. We review the framework of variational inference to obtain approximate posteriors of Bayesian neural networks and apply it to a network trained to estimate the parameters of the Singular Isothermal Ellipsoid plus external shear and total flux magnification. We show that the method can capture the uncertainties …
Many distant objects can only be detected, or become more scientifically valuable, if they have been highly magnified by strong gravitational lensing. We use EAGLE and BAHAMAS, two recent cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, to predict the probability distribution for both the lens mass and lens redshift when point sources are highly magnified by gravitational lensing. For sources at a redshift of two, we find the distribution of lens redshifts to be broad, peaking at z=0.6. The contribution of different lens masses is also fairly broad, with most high-magnification lensing due to lenses w…
The inner mass-profile of the relaxed cluster Abell 1703 is analysed by two very different strong-lensing techniques applied to deep ACS and WFC3 imaging. Our parametric method has the accuracy required to reproduce the many sets of multiple images, based on the assumption that mass approximately traces light. We test this assumption with a fully non-parametric, adaptive grid method, with no knowledge of the galaxy distribution. Differences between the methods are seen on fine scales due to member galaxies which must be included in models designed to search for lensed images, but on the larger…
Host Dependence and Line-of-Sight Effects on Galaxy-Galaxy Strong Lensing in Clusters
Massachusetts Institute of Technology（麻省理工学院）；Yale University（耶鲁大学）；University of Michigan（密歇根大学）；INAF-Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna（意大利国家天体物理研究所博洛尼亚天文与空间科学观测站）；Philipps Universität Marburg（马尔堡菲利普斯大学）
We forecast constraints on the amplitude of matter clustering sigma_8(z) achievable with the combination of cluster weak lensing and number counts, in current and next-generation weak lensing surveys. We advocate an approach, analogous to galaxy-galaxy lensing, in which the observables in each redshift bin are the mean number counts and the mean weak lensing profile of clusters above a mass proxy threshold. The primary astrophysical nuisance parameter is the logarithmic scatter between the mass proxy and true mass near the threshold. For surveys similar to the Dark Energy Survey (DES), the Rom…
Observations of the large-scale structure (LSS) implicitly assume an ideal FLRW observer with the ambient structure having no influence on the observer. However, due to correlations in the LSS, cosmological observables are dependent on the position of an observer. We investigate this influence in full generality for a weakly non-Gaussian random field, for which we derive expressions for angular spectra of large-scale structure observables conditional on a property of the large-scale structure that is typical for the observer's location. As an application, we then apply to the formalism to angu…
GRB afterglows offer a probe of the intergalactic medium out to high redshift which complements observations along more abundant quasar lines-of-sight. Although both quasars and GRB afterglows should provide a-priori random sight-lines through the intervening IGM, it has been observed that strong Mg-II absorbers are twice as likely to be found along sight-lines toward GRBs. Several proposals to reconcile this discrepancy have been put forward, but none has been found sufficient to explain the magnitude of the effect. In this paper we estimate the effect of gravitational lensing by galaxies and…
A method to calculate light curves of the gravitational microlensing of the Ellis wormhole is derived in the weak-field limit. In this limit, lensing by the wormhole produces one image outside the Einstein ring and one other image inside. The weak-field hypothesis is a good approximation in Galactic lensing if the throat radius is less than $10^{11} km$. The light curves calculated have gutters of approximately 4% immediately outside the Einstein ring crossing times. The magnification of the Ellis wormhole lensing is generally less than that of Schwarzschild lensing. The optical depths and eve…
The weak gravitational lensing formalism can be extended to the strong lensing regime by integrating a nonlinear version of the geodesic deviation equation. The resulting "roulette" expansion generalises the notion of convergence, shear and flexion to arbitrary order. The independent coefficients of this expansion are screen space gradients of the optical tidal tensor which approximates to the usual lensing potential in the weak field limit. From lensed images, knowledge of the roulette coefficients can in principle be inverted to reconstruct the mass distribution of a lens. In this paper, we …
We present the marginal unbiased score expansion (MUSE) method, an algorithm for generic high-dimensional hierarchical Bayesian inference. MUSE performs approximate marginalization over arbitrary non-Gaussian latent parameter spaces, yielding Gaussianized asymptotically unbiased and near-optimal constraints on global parameters of interest. It is computationally much cheaper than exact alternatives like Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC), excelling on funnel problems which challenge HMC, and does not require any problem-specific user supervision like other approximate methods such as Variational In…
We explore the weak lensing E- and B-mode shear signals of a field of galaxy clusters using both large scale structure N-body simulations and multi-color Suprime-cam & Hubble Space Telescope observations. Using the ray-traced and observed shears along with photometric redshift catalogs, we generate mass maps of the foreground overdensities by optimally filtering the tangential shear that they induce on background galaxies. We then develop and test a method to approximate the foreground structure as a superposition of NFW-like halos by locating these overdensities and determining their mass and…
We report the application of implicit likelihood inference to the prediction of the macro-parameters of strong lensing systems with neural networks. This allows us to perform deep learning analysis of lensing systems within a well-defined Bayesian statistical framework to explicitly impose desired priors on lensing variables, to obtain accurate posteriors, and to guarantee convergence to the optimal posterior in the limit of perfect performance. We train neural networks to perform a regression task to produce point estimates of lensing parameters. We then interpret these estimates as compresse…
The halo model (HM) describes the inhomogeneous universe as a collection of halos. The full nonlinear power spectrum of the universe is well approximated by the HM, whose prediction can be easily computed without lengthy numerical simulations. This makes the HM a useful tool in cosmology. Here we explore the lensing properties of the HM by use of the stochastic gravitational lensing (sGL) method. We obtain for the case of point sources exact and simple integral expressions for the expected value and variance of the lensing convergence, which encode detailed information about the internal halo …
We perform high resolution ray-tracing simulations to investigate probability distribution functions (PDFs) of lensing convergence, shear, and magnification on distant sources up to the redshift of $z_s=20$. We pay particular attention to the shot noise effect in $N$-body simulations by explicitly showing how it affects the variance of the convergence. We show that the convergence and magnification PDFs are closely related with each other via the approximate relation $μ=(1-κ)^{-2}$, which can reproduce the behavior of PDFs surprisingly well up to the high magnification tail. The mean convergen…
Weak gravitational lensing is normally assumed to have only two principle effects: a magnification of a source and a distortion of the sources shape in the form of a shear. However, further distortions are actually present owing to changes in the gravitational field across the scale of the ray bundle of light propagating to us, resulting in the familiar arcs in lensed images. This is normally called the flexion, and is approximated by Taylor expanding the shear and magnification across the image plane. However, the physical origin of this effect arises from higher-order corrections in the geod…
Any theory invoked to explain cosmic acceleration predicts consistency relations between the expansion history, structure growth, and all related observables. Currently there exist high-quality measurements of the expansion history from Type Ia supernovae, the cosmic microwave background temperature and polarization spectra, and baryon acoustic oscillations. We can use constraints from these datasets to predict what future probes of structure growth should observe. We apply this method to predict what range of cosmic shear power spectra would be expected if we lived in a LambdaCDM universe, wi…
Gravitational lensing time delays offer an avenue to measure the Hubble parameter $H_0$, with some analyses suggesting a tension with early-type probes of $H_0$. The lensing measurements must mitigate systematic uncertainties due to the mass modelling of lens galaxies. In particular, a core component in the lens density profile would form an approximate local mass sheet degeneracy and could bias $H_0$ in the right direction to solve the lensing tension. We consider ultralight dark matter as a possible mechanism to generate such galactic cores. We show that cores of roughly the required propert…
Hořava gravity is a attempt to construct a renormalizable theory of gravity by breaking the Lorentz Invariance of the gravitational action at high energies. The underlying principle is that Lorentz Invariance is an approximate symmetry and its violation by gravitational phenomena is somehow hidden to present limits of observational precision. Here I point out that a simple modification of the low energy limit of Hořava gravity in its non-projectable form can effectively camouflage the presence of a preferred frame in regions where the Newtonian gravitational field gradient is higher than $cH_0…
This paper aims to quantify how the lowest halo mass that can be detected with galaxy-galaxy strong gravitational lensing depends on the quality of the observations and the characteristics of the observed lens systems. Using simulated data, we measure the lowest detectable NFW mass at each location of the lens plane, in the form of detailed \emph{sensitivity maps}. In summary, we find that: (i) the lowest detectable mass $M_{\rm low}$ decreases linearly as the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) increases and the sensitive area is larger when we decrease the noise; (ii) a moderate increase in angular …
The time delay measured between the images of gravitationally lensed quasars probes a combination of the angular diameter distance to the source-lens system and the mass density profile of the lens. Observational campaigns to measure such systems have reported a determination of the Hubble parameter H0 that shows significant tension with independent determination based on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and large scale structure (LSS). We show that lens mass models that exhibit a cored component, coexisting with a cusp, probe a degenerate direction in the lens model parameter space, bein…
