The massive cluster MACSJ1149.5+2223(z=0.544) displays five very large lensed images of a well resolved spiral galaxy at $z_{rm spect}=1.491$. It is within one of these images that the first example of a multiply-lensed supernova has been detected re
cently as part of the Grism Lens-Amplified Survey from Space. The depth of this data also reveals many HII regions within the lensed spiral galaxy which we identify between the five counter-images. Here we expand the capability of our free-form method to incorporate these HII regions locally, with other reliable lensed galaxies added for a global solution. This improved accuracy allows us to estimate when the Refsdal supernova will appear within the other lensed images of the spiral galaxy to an accuracy of $sim$ 7%. We predict this supernova will reappear in one of the counter-images (RA=11:49:36.025, DEC=+22:23:48.11, J2000) and on November 1$^{st}$ 2015 (with an estimated error of $pm$ 25 days) it will be at the same phase as it was when it was originally discovered, offering a unique opportunity to study the early phases of this supernova and to examine the consistency of the mass model and the cosmological model that have an impact on the time delay prediction.
We examine the latest data on the cluster MACSJ0717.5+3745 from the Hubble Frontier Fields campaign. The critically lensed area is the largest known of any lens and very irregular making it a challenge for parametric modelling. Using our Free-Form me
thod we obtain an accurate solution, identify here many new sets of multiple images, doubling the number of constraints and improving the reconstruction of the dark matter distribution. Our reconstructed mass map shows several distinct central substructures with shallow density profiles, clarifying earlier work and defining well the relation between the dark matter distribution and the luminous and X-ray peaks within the critically lensed region. Using our free-form method, we are able to meaningfully subtract the mass contribution from cluster members to the deflection field to trace the smoothly distributed cluster dark matter distribution. We find 4 distinct concentrations, 3 of which are coincident with the luminous matter. The fourth peak has a significant offset from both the closest luminous and X-ray peaks. These findings, together with dynamical data from the motions of galaxies and gas will be important for uncovering the potentially important implications of this extremely massive and intriguing system.
Hubble Frontier Fields (HFF) imaging of the most powerful lensing clusters provides access to the most magnified distant galaxies. The challenge is to construct lens models capable of describing these complex massive, merging clusters so that individ
ual lensed systems can be reliably identified and their intrinsic properties accurately derived. We apply the free-form lensing method (WSLAP+) to A2744, providing a model independent map of the cluster mass, magnification, and geometric distance estimates to multiply-lensed sources. We solve simultaneously for a smooth cluster component on a pixel grid, together with local deflections by the cluster member galaxies. Combining model prediction with photometric redshift measurements, we correct and complete several systems recently claimed, and identify 4 new systems - totalling 65 images of 21 systems spanning a redshift range of 1.4<z<9.8. The reconstructed mass shows small enhancements in the directions where significant amounts of hot plasma can be seen in X-ray. We compare photometric redshifts with geometric redshifts, finding a high level of self-consistency. We find excellent agreement between predicted and observed fluxes - with a best-fit slope of 0.999+-0.013 and an RMS of ~0.25 mag, demonstrating that our magnification correction of the lensed background galaxies is very reliable. Intriguingly, few multiply-lensed galaxies are detected beyond z~7.0, despite the high magnification and the limiting redshift of z~11.5 permitted by the HFF filters. With the additional HFF clusters we can better examine the plausibility of any pronounced high-z deficit, with potentially important implications for the reionization epoch and the nature of dark matter.
Hubble Space Telescope imaging of the galaxy cluster Abell 1689 has revealed an exceptional number of strongly lensed multiply-imaged galaxies, including high-redshift candidates. Previous studies have used this data to obtain the most detailed dark
matter reconstructions of any galaxy cluster to date, resolving substructures ~25 kpc across. We examine Abell 1689 (hereafter, A1689) non-parametrically, combining strongly lensed images and weak distortions from wider field Subaru imaging, and we incorporate member galaxies to improve the lens solution. Strongly lensed galaxies are often locally affected by member galaxies, however, these perturbations cannot be recovered in grid based reconstructions because the lensing information is too sparse to resolve member galaxies. By adding luminosity-scaled member galaxy deflections to our smooth grid we can derive meaningful solutions with sufficient accuracy to permit the identification of our own strongly lensed images, so our model becomes self consistent. We identify 11 new multiply lensed system candidates and clarify previously ambiguous cases, in the deepest optical and NIR data to date from Hubble and Subaru. Our improved spatial resolution brings up new features not seen when the weak and strong lensing effects are used separately, including clumps and filamentary dark matter around the main halo. Our treatment means we can obtain an objective mass ratio between the cluster and galaxy components, for examining the extent of tidal stripping of the luminous member galaxies. We find a typical mass-to-light ratios of M/L_B = 21 inside the r<1 arcminute region that drops to M/L_B = 17 inside the r<40 arcsecond region. Our model independence means we can objectively evaluate the competitiveness of stacking cluster lenses for defining the geometric lensing-distance-redshift relation in a model independent way.
In the strong lensing regime non-parametric lens models struggle to achieve sufficient angular resolution for a meaningful derivation of the central cluster mass distribution. The problem lies mainly with cluster members which perturb lensed images a
nd generate additional images, requiring high resolution modeling, even though we mainly wish to understand the relatively smooth cluster component. The required resolution is not achievable because the separation between lensed images is several times larger than the deflection angles by member galaxies, even for the deepest data. Here we bypass this limitation by incorporating a simple physical prior for member galaxies, using their observed positions and their luminosity scaled masses. This galaxy contribution is added to a relatively coarse Gaussian pixel grid for modeling the cluster mass distribution, extending our established WSLAP code (Diego et al. 2007). We test this new code with a simulation based on A1689, using the pixels belonging to multiply-lensed images and the observed member galaxies. Dealing with the cluster members this way leads to convergent solutions, without resorting to regularization, reproducing well the input cluster and substructures. We highlight the ability of this method to recover dark sub-components of the cluster, unrelated to member galaxies. Such anomalies can provide clues to the nature of invisible dark matter, but are hard to discover using parametrized models where substructures are defined by the visible data. With our increased resolution and stability we show, for the first time, that non-parametric models can be made sufficiently precise to locate multiply-lensed systems, thereby achieving fully self-consistent solutions without reliance on input systems from less objective means.
