We test the Emergent Gravity(EG) theory using the galaxy-galaxy lensing technique based on SDSS DR7 data. In the EG scenario, we do not expect color dependence of the galaxy sample in the 'apparent dark matter' predicted by EG, which is exerted only by the baryonic mass. If the baryonic mass is similar, then the predicted lensing profiles from the baryonic mass should be similar according to the EG, regardless of the color of the galaxy sample. We use the stellar mass of the galaxy as a proxy of its baryonic mass. We divide our galaxy sample into 5 stellar mass bins, and further classify them as red and blue subsamples in each stellar mass bin. If we set halo mass and concentration as free parameters, $Λ$CDM is favored by our data in terms of the reduced $χ^2$ while EG fails to explain the color dependence of ESDs from the galaxy-galaxy lensing measurement.
We present the mass distribution at the core of SDSS J1531+3414, a strong-lensing cluster at z=0.335. We find that the mass distribution is well described by two cluster-scale halos with a contribution from cluster-member galaxies. New HST observations of SDSS J1531+3414 reveal a signature of ongoing star formation associated with the two central galaxies at the core of the cluster, in the form of a chain of star forming regions at the center of the cluster. Using the lens model presented here, we place upper limits on the contribution of a possible lensed image to the flux at the center regio…
We have built a new model for the lens system SDSS J1004+4112 including the recently measured time delay of the fourth quasar image. This time delay has a strong influence on the inner mass distribution of the lensing cluster ($ρ\propto r^{-α}$) allowing us to determine $α=1.18^{+0.02(+0.11)}_{-0.03(-0.18)}$ at the 68% (95%) confidence level in agreement with hydrodynamical simulations of massive galaxy clusters. We find an offset between the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) and the dark matter halo of $3.8^{+0.6(+1.4)}_{-0.7(-1.3)}$ kpc at 68% (95%) confidence which is compatible with other gal…
Strong lensing is one of the most spectacular views in the universe. Many cosmological applications have been proposed, but the number of such lensing systems is still limited. In this work, we applied an improved version of a previously developed spectroscopic lensing search method to the SDSS-III BOSS and proposed a list of highly possible candidates. Follow-up CFHT Megacam imaging observations were performed for five systems, and two out of five are probably strong lensing systems with at least one image close to the central galaxy, although no counter images are detected.
We present the result of Subaru Telescope multi-band adaptive optics observations of the complex gravitationally lensed quasar SDSS J1405+0959, which is produced by two lensing galaxies. These observations reveal dramatically enhanced morphological detail, leading to the discovery of an additional object 0. 26'' from the secondary lensing galaxy, as well as three collinear clumps located in between the two lensing galaxies. The new object is likely to be the third quasar image, although the possibility that it is a galaxy cannot be entirely excluded. If confirmed via future observations, it wo…
We present strong gravitational lensing models for 37 galaxy clusters from the SDSS Giant Arcs Survey. We combine data from multi-band Hubble Space Telescope WFC3imaging, with ground-based imaging and spectroscopy from Magellan, Gemini, APO, and MMT, in order to detect and spectroscopically confirm new multiply-lensed background sources behind the clusters. We report spectroscopic or photometric redshifts of sources in these fields, including cluster galaxies and background sources. Based on all available lensing evidence, we construct and present strong lensing mass models for these galaxy cl…
We spectroscopically detected 838 likely, 448 probable, and 265 possible strong lens candidates within $\approx2$ million galaxy spectra contained within the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) from the sixteenth data release (DR16) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We apply the spectroscopic detection method of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) Emission-Line Lens Survey (BELLS) and add Gaussian fit information, grading, additional inspection observables, and additional inspection methods to improve our selection method. We observed 477 candidates wi…
We present new light curves for the four bright images of the five image cluster-lensed quasar gravitational lens system SDSS~J1004+4112. The light curves span 14.5 yr and allow measurement of the time delay between the trailing bright quasar image D and the leading image C. When we fit all four light curves simultaneously and combine the models using the Bayes information criterion, we find a time delay of $Δt_{DC}= 2458.47 \pm 1.02$ days (6.73 yr), the longest ever measured for a gravitational lens. For the other two independent time delays we obtain $Δt_{BC}=782.20 \pm 0.43$ days (2.14 yr) …
We present new observations of two z=0.12 strong-lensing elliptical galaxies, originally discovered from the SDSS-IV MaNGA survey, using the new FOCAS IFU spectrograph on the Subaru Telescope. For J1436+4943, our observations confirm the identification of this system as a multiple-image lens, in a cusp configuration, with Einstein radius $θ_{Ein}$=2.0 arcsec. For J1701+3722, the improved data confirm earlier hints of a complex source plane, with different configurations evident in different emission lines. The new observations reveal a previously unseen inner counter-image to the [OIII] arc fo…
We perform a galaxy-galaxy lensing study by correlating the shapes of $\sim$2.7 $\times$ 10$^5$ galaxies selected from the VLA FIRST radio survey with the positions of $\sim$38.5 million SDSS galaxies, $\sim$132000 BCGs and $\sim$78000 SDSS galaxies that are also detected in the VLA FIRST survey. The measurements are conducted on angular scales $θ$ $\lesssim$ 1200 arcsec. On scales $θ$ $\lesssim$ 200 arcsec we find that the measurements are corrupted by residual systematic effects associated with the instrumental beam of the VLA data. Using simulations we show that we can successfully apply a …
SDSS J2222+2745, at z = 0.489, is one of the few currently known lens clusters with multiple images of a background (z = 2.801) quasar with measured time delays. We combine imaging from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) with recent Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) spectroscopic data to securely identify 34 cluster members and 12 multiple images from 3 background sources. We measure the stellar velocity dispersions of 13 cluster galaxies, enabling an independent estimate of the contribution of the sub-halo mass component to the lens total mass. The projected total mass distribution of th…
We present a strong lensing analysis of the galaxy cluster SDSS J1029+2623 at $z=0.588$, one of the few currently known lens clusters with multiple images of a background ($z=2.1992$) quasar with a measured time delay. We use archival Hubble Space Telescope multi-band imaging and new Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer follow-up spectroscopy to build an accurate lens mass model, a crucial step towards future cosmological applications. The spectroscopic data enable the secure identification of 57 cluster members and of two nearby perturbers along the line-of-sight. We estimate the inner kinematic…
We spectroscopically detected candidate emission-lines of 8 likely, 17 probable, and 69 possible strong galaxy-galaxy gravitational lens candidates found within the spectra of ~10,000 galaxy targets contained within the completed Mapping of Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey. This search is based upon the methodology of the Spectroscopic Identification of Lensing Objects (SILO) project, which extends the spectroscopic detection methods of the BOSS Emission-Line Lensing Survey (BELLS) and the Sloan Lens ACS Survey (SLACS). We scanned the co-added residuals that we constr…
Using the combined resolving power of the Hubble Space Telescope and gravitational lensing, we resolve star-forming structures in a z~2.5 galaxy on scales much smaller than the usual kiloparsec diffraction limit of HST. SGAS J111020.0+645950.8 is a clumpy, star forming galaxy lensed by the galaxy cluster SDSS J1110+6459 at z = 0.659, with a total magnification ~30x across the entire arc. We use a hybrid parametric/non-parametric strong lensing mass model to compute the deflection and magnification of this giant arc, reconstruct the light distribution of the lensed galaxy in the source plane, a…
Gravitational lensing sometimes dominates the observed properties of apparently very bright objects. We present morphological properties in the high-resolution (FWHM $\sim0.''15$) Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) 1-mm map for an ultra-luminous quasar (QSO) at $z=6.30$, SDSS J010013.02+280225.8 (hereafter J0100+2802), whose black hole mass $M_{\rm BH}$ is the most massive ($\sim$ 1.2$\times10^{10}M_{\odot}$) at $z>6$ ever known. We find that the continuum emission of J0100+2802 is resolved into a quadruple system within a radius of $0.''2$, which can be interpreted as either …
We analyse new optical observations of the gravitational lens system SDSS J1515+1511. These include a 2.6-year photometric monitoring with the Liverpool Telescope (LT) in the $r$ band, as well as a spectroscopic follow-up with the LT and the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC). Our $r$-band LT light curves cover a quiescent microlensing period of the doubly imaged quasar at $z_{\rm s}$ = 2.049, which permits us to robustly estimate the time delay between the two images A and B: 211 $\pm$ 5 days (1$σ$ confidence interval; A is leading). Unfortunately, the main lensing galaxy (G1) is so faint and clo…
We study the evolution of the luminosity-to-halo mass relation of Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs). We select a sample of 52 000 LOWZ and CMASS LRGs from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) SDSS-DR10 in the ~450 deg^2 that overlaps with imaging data from the second Red-sequence Cluster Survey (RCS2), group them into bins of absolute magnitude and redshift and measure their weak lensing signals. The source redshift distribution has a median of 0.7, which allows us to study the lensing signal as a function of lens redshift. We interpret the lensing signal using a halo model, from whic…
Intrinsic alignments (IA) of galaxies, i.e. correlations of galaxy shapes with each other or with the density field, are a major astrophysical source of contamination for weak lensing surveys. We present the results of IA measurements of galaxies on 0.1- 200 Mpc/h scales using the SDSS-III BOSS LOWZ sample, in the redshift range 0.16<z<0.36. We extend the existing IA measurements for spectroscopic LRGs to lower luminosities, and show that the luminosity dependence of large-scale IA can be well-described by a power law. Within the limited redshift and color range of our sample, we observe no si…
We are using OSIRIS at the 10.4-m Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC) to obtain spectra of faint galaxies close to multiply imaged quasars. We initially focused on the fields of HE 1413+117 (Cloverleaf quasar) and SDSS 1116+4118. In this contribution, we present long-slit spectroscopy of two galaxies in the southwest of the Cloverleaf, and show that one of them makes a negligible contribution to the external shear of the gravitational lens system. Spectra of the main lensing galaxy candidate in SDSS 1116+4118 are also analysed and discused. If gravitational lensing is causing the quasar image split…
We explore the properties of lensing galaxies and lensed faint sources at redshifts between 1.5 and 3.0. Our sample consists of 9 carefully selected strongly-lensed galaxies discovered by the CASSOWARY survey in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data. We find that, despite some limitations of the original SDSS data, the homogeneous sample of lensing systems can provide a useful insight into lens and source properties. We also explore the limitations of using low-resolution data to model and analyse galaxy-galaxy lensing. We derive the relative alignment of mass and light in fitted lens profi…
We present an $r$--band photometric monitoring of the two images A and B of the gravitationally lensed quasar SDSS J1442+4055 using the Liverpool Telescope (LT). From the LT light curves between 2015 December and 2018 August, we derive at once a time delay of 25.0 $\pm$ 1.5 days (1$σ$ confidence interval; A is leading) and microlensing magnification gradients below 10$^{-4}$ mag day$^{-1}$. The delay interval is not expected to be affected by an appreciable microlensing--induced bias, so it can be used to estimate cosmological parameters. This paper also focuses on new Gran Telescopio Canarias…
The clustering of dark matter halos depends on the assembly history of halos at fixed halo mass; a phenomenon referred to as \textit{halo assembly bias}. Halo assembly bias is readily observed in cosmological simulations of dark matter. However, it is difficult to detect it in observations. The identification of galaxy or cluster properties correlated with the formation time of the halo at fixed halo mass and the ability to select galaxy clusters free from projection effects are the two most significant hurdles in the observational detection of halo assembly bias. The latter, in particular, ca…
We compare predictions for galaxy-galaxy lensing profiles and clustering from the Henriques et al. (2015) public version of the Munich semi-analytical model of galaxy formation (SAM) and the IllustrisTNG suite, primarily TNG300, with observations from KiDS+GAMA and SDSS-DR7 using four different selection functions for the lenses (stellar mass, stellar mass and group membership, stellar mass and isolation criteria, stellar mass and colour). We find that this version of the SAM does not agree well with the current data for stellar mass-only lenses with $M_\ast > 10^{11}\,M_\odot$. By decreasing …
We study the profiles of 75 086 elliptical galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) at both large (50-500 kpc/h) and small (~3 kpc/h) scales. Weak lensing observations in the outskirts of the halo are combined with measurements of the stellar velocity dispersion in the interior regions of the galaxy for stacked galaxy samples. The weak lensing measurements are well characterized by a Navarro, Frenk and White (NFW) profile. The dynamical mass measurements exceed the extrapolated NFW profile even after the estimated stellar masses are subtracted, providing evidence for the modification …
We report extremely faint 144 MHz radio emission from two gravitationally lensed quasars, SDSS J1004+4112 (z = 1.730) and SDSS J2222+2745 (z = 2.803), using the LOFAR Two Metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) data release 2. After correcting for the lensing magnifications, the two objects have intrinsic flux-densities of 13+/-2 and 58+/-6 uJy, respectively, corresponding to 144 MHz rest-frame luminosities of 10^(23.2+/-0.2) and 10^(24.42+/-0.05) W / Hz, respectively. In the case of SDSS J1004+4112, the intrinsic flux density is close to the confusion limit of LoTSS, making this radio source the faintest to…
We test the concordance LCDM cosmology by comparing predictions for the mean properties of galaxy clusters to observations. We use high-resolution N-body simulations of cosmic structure formation and semi-analytic models of galaxy formation to compute the abundance, mean density profile, and mass of galaxy clusters as a function of richness and luminosity, and we compare these predictions to observations of clusters in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) maxBCG catalogue. We discuss the scatter in the mass-richness relation, the reconstruction of the cluster mass function from the mass-richnes…
In this paper, we measure the optical-to-virial velocity ratios Vopt/V200c of disk galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) at a mean redshift of <z> = 0.07 and with stellar masses 10^9 M_sun < M_* < 10^11 M_sun. Vopt/V200c, the ratio of the circular velocity measured at the virial radius of the dark matter halo (\sim150 kpc) to that at the optical radius of the disk (\sim10 kpc), is a powerful observational constraint on disk galaxy formation. It links galaxies to their dark matter haloes dynamically and constrains the total mass profile of disk galaxies over an order of magnitude in l…
SDSS J2222+2745 is a galaxy cluster at z=0.49, strongly lensing a quasar at z=2.805 into six widely separated images. In recent HST imaging of the field, we identify additional multiply lensed galaxies, and confirm the sixth quasar image that was identified by Dahle et al. (2013). We used the Gemini North telescope to measure a spectroscopic redshift of z=4.56 of one of the secondary lensed galaxies. These data are used to refine the lens model of SDSS J2222+2745, compute the time delay and magnifications of the lensed quasar images, and reconstruct the source image of the quasar host and a se…
We report the discovery of significant mass/light offsets in the strong gravitational lensing system SDSS\,J1011$+$0143. We use the high-resolution \textsl{Hubble Space Telescope} (\textsl{HST}) F555W- and F814W-band imaging and Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) spectroscopy of this system, which consists of a close galaxy pair with a projected separation of $\approx 4.2$ kpc at $z_{\rm lens} \sim 0.331$ lensing a Ly$α$ emitter (LAE) at $z_{\rm source} = 2.701$. Comparisons between the mass peaks inferred from lens models and light peaks from \textsl{HST} imaging data reveal significant spatial …
We highlight phenomenological aspects of Verlinde's recent proposal to account for the mass anomalies in galactic systems without dark matter -- in particular in their relation to MOND. Welcome addition to the MOND lore as it is, this approach have reproduced, so far, only a small fraction of MOND phenomenology, and is still rather tentative, both in its theoretical foundations and in its phenomenology. What Verlinde has extracted from this approach, so far, is a formula -- of rather limited applicability, and with no road to generalization in sight -- for the effective gravitational field of …
We study the highly magnified arc SGAS J122651.3+215220 caused by a star-forming galaxy at $z_s=2.93$ crossing the lensing caustic cast by the galaxy cluster SDSS J1226+2152 ($z_l=0.43$), using Hubble Space Telescope observations. We report in the arc several asymmetric surface brightness features whose angular separations are a fraction of an arcsecond from the lensing critical curve and appear to be highly but unequally magnified image pairs of underlying compact sources, with one brightest pair having clear asymmetry consistently across four filters. One explanation of unequal magnification…
Two methods for mass profiles reconstruction in disc-like galaxies are presented in this work, the first is done with the fit of the rotation curve based on the data of circular velocity which are obtained observationally in a stars system, while the other method is focused in the Gravitational Lensed Effect (GLE). For these mass reconstructions, two routines developed in the language of programming python were used: one of them is Galrotpy, which was built by members of the Galaxies, Gravitation and Cosmology group from the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional of the Universidad Nacional de Colo…
We present ~1" resolution (~2 kpc in the source plane) observations of the CO(1-0), CO(3-2), Halpha, and [N II] lines in the strongly-lensed z=2.26 star-forming galaxy SDSS J0901+1814. We use these observations to constrain the lensing potential of a foreground group of galaxies, and our source-plane reconstructions indicate that SDSS J0901+1814 is a nearly face-on (i~30 degrees) massive disk with r_{1/2}>~4 kpc for its molecular gas. Using our new magnification factors (mu_tot~30), we find that SDSS J0901+1814 has a star formation rate (SFR) of 268^{+63}_{-61} M_sun/yr, M_gas=(1.6^{+0.3}_{-0.…
We present a sample of 12 Quasi-Stellar Objects (QSOs) potentially acting as strong gravitational lenses on background Emission Line Galaxies (ELG) or Lyman-$α$ Emitters (LAEs) selected selected through a systematic search of the 297301 QSOs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)-III Data Release 12. Candidates are identified by looking for compound spectra, where emission lines at a redshift larger than that of the quasar can be identified in the residuals after a QSO spectral template is subtracted from the observed spectra. The narrow diameter of BOSS fibers (2") then ensures that the objec…
We report the results of an optical spectroscopic follow-up of four double quasar candidates in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) database. SDSS J1617+3827 is most likely a lensed quasar at z = 2.079, consisting of two images with r ~ 19-21 and separated by ~ 2 arcsec. We identify an extended source northeast of the brightest image as an early-type lensing galaxy at z = 0.602, and detect a candidate for the main deflector in the vicinity of the faintest image. SDSS J2153+2732 consists of two distinct but physically associated quasars at z ~ 2.24 (r ~ 19-20, separation of 3.6 arcsec). Althoug…
