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Register a new userModel-independent and model-based local lensing properties of B0128+437 from resolved quasar images
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The galaxy-scale gravitational lens B0128+437 generates a quadrupole-image configuration of a background quasar that shows milli-arcsecond-scale subcomponents in the multiple images observed with VLBI. As this multiple-image configuration including the subcomponents has eluded a parametric lens-model characterisation so far, we determine local lens properties at the positions of the multiple images with our model-independent approach. Using PixeLens, we also succeed in setting up a global free-form mass density reconstruction including all subcomponents as constraints. We compare the model-independent local lens properties with those obtained by PixeLens and those obtained by the parametric modelling algorithm Lensmodel. A comparison of all three approaches and a model-free analysis based on the relative polar angles of the multiple images corroborate the hypothesis that elliptically symmetric models are too simplistic to characterise the asymmetric mass density distribution of this lenticular or late-type galaxy. In addition, the model-independent approach efficiently determines local lens properties on the scale of the quasar subcomponents, which are computationally intensive to obtain by free-form model-based approaches. As only 40% of the small-scale subcomponent local lens properties overlap within the 1-$sigma$ confidence bounds, mass density gradients on milli-arcsecond scales cannot be excluded. Hence, aiming at a global reconstruction of the deflecting mass density distribution, increasingly detailed observations require flexible free-form models that allow for density fluctuations on milli-arcsecond scale to replace parametric ones, especially for asymmetric lenses or lenses with localised inhomogeneities like B0128.
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We investigate to which precision local magnification ratios, $mathcal{J}$, ratios of convergences, $f$, and reduced shears, $g = (g_{1}, g_{2})$, can be determined model-independently for the five resolved multiple images of the source at $z_mathrm{s}=1.675$ in CL0024. We also determine if a comparison to the respective results obtained by the parametric modelling program Lenstool and by the non-parametric modelling program Grale can detect biases in the lens models. For these model-based approaches we additionally analyse the influence of the number and location of the constraints from multiple images on the local lens properties determined at the positions of the five multiple images of the source at $z_mathrm{s}=1.675$. All approaches show high agreement on the local values of $mathcal{J}$, $f$, and $g$. We find that Lenstool obtains the tightest confidence bounds even for convergences around one using constraints from six multiple image systems, while the best Grale model is generated only using constraints from all multiple images with resolved brightness features and adding limited small-scale mass corrections. Yet, confidence bounds as large as the values themselves can occur for convergences close to one in all approaches. Our results are in agreement with previous findings, supporting the light-traces-mass assumption and the merger hypothesis for CL0024. Comparing the three different approaches allows to detect modelling biases. Given that the lens properties remain approximately constant over the extension of the image areas covered by the resolvable brightness features, the model-independent approach determines the local lens properties to a comparable precision but within less than a second. (shortened)
We investigate clustering properties of quasars using a new version of our semi-analytic model of galaxy and quasar formation with state-of-the-art cosmological N-body simulations. In this study, we assume that a major merger of galaxies triggers cold gas accretion on to a supermassive black hole and quasar activity. Our model can reproduce the downsizing trend of the evolution of quasars. We find that the median mass of quasar host dark matter haloes increases with cosmic time by an order of magnitude from z=4 (a few 1e+11 Msun) to z=1 (a few 1e+12 Msun), and depends only weakly on the quasar luminosity. Deriving the quasar bias through the quasar--galaxy cross-correlation function in the model, we find that the quasar bias does not depend on the quasar luminosity, similar to observed trends. This result reflects the fact that quasars with a fixed luminosity have various Eddington ratios and thus have various host halo masses that primarily determine the quasar bias. We also show that the quasar bias increases with redshift, which is in qualitative agreement with observations. Our bias value is lower than the observed values at high redshifts, implying that we need some mechanisms that make quasars inactive in low-mass haloes and/or that make them more active in high-mass haloes.
Strong gravitational lensing provides a wealth of astrophysical information on the baryonic and dark matter content of galaxies. It also serves as a valuable cosmological probe by allowing us to measure the Hubble constant independently of other methods. These applications all require the difficult task of inverting the lens equation and simultaneously reconstructing the mass profile of the lens along with the original light profile of the unlensed source. As there is no reason for either the lens or the source to be simple, we need methods that both invert the lens equation with a large number of degrees of freedom and also enforce a well-controlled regularisation that avoids the appearance of spurious structures. This can be beautifully accomplished by representing signals in wavelet space. Building on the Sparse Lens Inversion Technique (SLIT), in this work we present an improved sparsity-based method that describes lensed sources using wavelets and optimises over the parameters given an analytical lens mass profile. We apply our technique on simulated HST and E-ELT data, as well as on real HST images of lenses from the Sloan Lens ACS (SLACS) sample, assuming a lens model. We show that wavelets allow us to reconstruct lensed sources containing detailed substructures when using both present-day data and high-resolution images from future thirty-meter-class telescopes. Wavelets moreover provide a much more tractable solution in terms of quality and computation time compared to using a source model that combines smooth analytical profiles and shapelets. Requiring very little human interaction, our pixel-based technique fits into the effort to devise automated modelling schemes. It can be incorporated in the standard workflow of sampling analytical lens model parameters. The method, which we call SLITronomy, is freely available as a new plug-in to the modelling software Lenstronomy.
We derive a free-form mass distribution for the unrelaxed cluster A370 (z=0.375), using the latest Hubble Frontier Fields images and GLASS spectroscopy. Starting from a reliable set of 10 multiply lensed systems we produce a free-form lens model that identifies ~ 80 multiple-images. Good consistency is found between models using independent subsamples of these lensed systems, with detailed agreement for the well resolved arcs. The mass distribution has two very similar concentrations centred on the two prominent Brightest Cluster Galaxies (or BCGs), with mass profiles that are accurately constrained by a uniquely useful system of long radially lensed images centred on both BCGs. We show that the lensing mass profiles of these BCGs are mainly accounted for by their stellar mass profiles, with a modest contribution from dark matter within r<100 kpc of each BCG. This conclusion may favour a cooled cluster gas origin for BCGs, rather than via mergers of normal galaxies for which dark matter should dominate over stars. Growth via merging between BCGs is, however, consistent with this finding, so that stars still dominate over dark matter .
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