One of the largest sources of systematics in time-delay cosmography arises from Mass Sheet Transformation (MST). The degeneracy associated with this transformation is often broken by an assumed profile shape, such as a power-law. A hierarchical strategy has been developed which constrains the global profile shape on a population level, constrained collectively by the kinematics measurements of the lenses. This framework allows one to include non-time-delay lenses to provide constraints to the global profile, improving the H0 constraints. This work tests the hierarchical framework using analytical profiles, and additionally tests the capacity to combine two populations which come from the same profiles but probe different radii due to a change in source redshift. We find that the hierarchical framework is able to compensate for this effect, and the addition of non-time-delay lenses improves the H0 constraint, even though these lenses have different Einstein radii than their time-delay counterparts.

Forthcoming data from the Vera Rubin Observatory, Euclid and Roman telescopes are expected to increase the number of strong lenses by two orders of magnitude. With current discovery methods these would be accompanied by an even greater number of false positives. In that context we find that using an ensemble of classifiers would provide a more complete sample of high-purity lenses and present methods to post-process the outputs of such classifiers to give reliable probabilities that a given image contains a lens.

Current searches for galaxy-scale strong lenses focus on massive Luminous Red Galaxies but tend to overlook late-type lenses, in part because of their smaller Einstein radii. We take advantage of the superb seeing of the UNIONS survey in the r-band to perform an imaging search for edge-on late-type lenses. We use Convolutional Neural Networks trained with simulated observations composed of images of real galaxies from UNIONS and real sources from HST. Using 3600 square degrees of the survey we test ∼7 million galaxies and find 56 systems with obvious signs of lensing. In addition, we empirically estimate the true prevalence of lenses in UNIONS by visually inspecting 120,000 randomly chosen images in the survey. We find that the number of edge-on lenses we discover with CNNs is compatible with these estimates.

Rare systems with multiple sources strongly lensed by a single galaxy provide the most robust way to explore the geometry of the Universe and to study the inner mass structure of lens galaxies. We present here a study of the SDSS J0100+1818 deflector, analyzing its total and baryonic mass distributions. The system comprises an ultra-massive early-type galaxy, surrounded by ten multiple images of three background sources. Exploiting high-resolution HST photometry and VLT/X-shooter spectroscopy we conduct a strong lensing analysis with the software GLEE to reconstruct the complex surface brightness distributions of the background sources over approximately 7200 HST pixels. These results are presented in our recent paper, Bolamperti et al. (2023). Finally, we present some preliminary results from new VLT/MUSE observations, that will allow us to build a new strong lensing+dynamics joint model and measure the values of the total matter density and of the cosmological constant parameters, Ωm and ΩΛ.

Galaxy-galaxy strong lensing (SL) systems provide a unique opportunity to test modified gravity theories. Deviations from General Relativity are encoded in the post-Newtonian parameter (γ). As a preparation for the upcoming data from the Vera Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), our research group collected imaging data of SL systems from ground-based telescopes and conducted spectroscopic observations of 21 systems on the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope to measure the lens velocity dispersions, σv. We briefly describe the semi-automated SL modelling of the systems in this sample and combine the results with σv from SOAR to derive an estimate for γ. Our preliminary results yield a value of $$\gamma= 1.17_{ - 0.33}^{ + 0.29}$$, which is consistent with General Relativity. Although the error bars are limited by the sample size, this result represents the first constraint on modified gravity obtained purely from ground-based data, with a sample completely independent from previous studies, and which allows for a self consistent end-to-end analysis.

Over the last two decades, strong gravitational lensing has emerged as a potential method for studying the nature and distribution of dark matter on sub-galactic scales. In addition to the main lens substructure, line-of-sight dark matter haloes contribute greatly to the subtle perturbations of lensed images. Line-of-sight haloes, unlike dark matter subhaloes, imprint distinct anisotropic and quadrupole signatures in the maps that depict the divergence and curl of the effective deflection field, respectively, giving rise to quadrupole moments of the image-plane averaged two-point correlation function of these maps. In terms of central density evolution and dark matter halo distribution, the shapes and amplitudes of the two-point function multipoles alter dramatically in the presence of warm dark matter and self-interacting dark matter. This method, in conjunction with upcoming large-scale surveys, provides the prospect of improving the constraints on dark matter at a critical time in strong gravitational lensing research.

We aim to uncover the structure of the continuum and broad emission line (BEL) emitting regions in the gravitationally lensed quasar SDSS J1004+4112 through unique microlensing signatures. Analyzing 20 spectroscopic observations from 2003 to 2018, we study the striking deformations of various BEL profiles and determine the sizes of their respective emitting regions. We use the emission line cores as a baseline for no microlensing and then apply Bayesian methods to derive the sizes of the Lyα, Si IV, C IV, C III], and Mg II emitting regions, as well as of the underlying continuum-emitting sources. We find that the sizes of the emitting regions for the BELs are a few light-days across, notably smaller than in typical lensed quasars. The asymmetric distortions observed in the BELs suggest that the broad-line region lacks spherical symmetry and is likely confined to a plane. The inferred continuum emitting region sizes are larger than predictions based on standard thin-disk theory by a factor of ∼ 4. We find that the size-wavelength relation is in agreement with that of a geometrically thin and optically thick accretion disk.

Studying the density profiles of galaxy groups offers an important insight on how large-scale structure in the Universe formed and evolved, since galaxy groups bridge the gap between individual galaxies and galaxy clusters. We aim to probe the total density profile of the galaxy group that is gravitational lensing HELMS18, a submillimeter galaxy at z = 2.39 from the Herschel’s HerMES Large Mode Survey (HELMS), by combining strong gravitational lensing with kinematics of the centrally-located galaxies and kinematics of the group members. We will use high-resolution data of HELMS18 obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and multi-object spectroscopic data of the group members from Gemini-GMOS. Our final goal is to combine these observations to probe the stellar and dark matter density profiles and to build a complete description of this galaxy group.

Density profiles of galaxy groups can provide an insight on how large-scale structure in the Universe formed and evolved, since galaxy groups bridge the gap between individual galaxies and galaxy clusters. Studying the galaxy group that is gravitational lensing HELMS18, a submillimeter galaxy at z = 2.39 from the Herschel’s HerMES Large Mode Survey (HELMS), we aim to probe the total density profile by combining strong gravitational lensing with kinematics of the centrally-located galaxies and kinematics of the group members. We have high-resolution data of HELMS18 obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and multi-object spectroscopic data of the group members from Gemini-GMOS. Our main goal is to match these observations to probe the DM and stellar density profiles and to establish a complete description of this galaxy group.

We present independent optical spectroscopic follow-up of WGD2038-4008/GRAL2038-4008, a background quasar strongly lensed by a foreground elliptical galaxy into four images, recently discovered independently by Agnello et al. [2018, MNRAS, 479, 4345] and Krone-Martins et al. [2018, A&A, 616, L11] thanks to the exquisite spatial resolution of Gaia. The quasar images are bright (i ∼ 19 mag), thus enabling us to reach S/N > 20 for the continuum within 30 min of exposure time with the Andalucia Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera spectrograph mounted on the 2.56-m Nordic Optical Telescope. The flexible scheduling and high sensitivity delivered by Andalucia Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera provide timely redshifts and reveal the nature of the quasar images; both are essential for lensing modelling and cosmography. Our analysis shows a strong emission feature in a data gap in Agnello et al. [2018, MNRAS, 479, 4345], which can be attributed to as an interloper emission line feature from the foreground lensing galaxy, or hinting to a higher redshift of the background quasar. We discuss these two scenarios and outline possible tests to verify these scenarios.

We present MUSE observations of a typical (M⋆ = 6 × 109M⊙) young lensed galaxy at z=3.5, for which we obtain 2D resolved spatial information of Ly α and, for the first time, of C iii] emission. We also derive important physical properties from several UV emission and absorption lines, rarely seen at these redshifts. Stellar and gas-phase metallicities point towards a low metallicity object. We model the Ly α line and surface brightness profile using a radiative transfer code in an expanding gas shell, finding that this model provides a reasonable description of both observables.

The Hubble Frontier Fields, together with other cluster lensing surveys with Hubble, have revealed hundreds of high-redshift (z≳6) dropout galaxy candidates. We summarize recent efforts taken to spectroscopically follow up magnified high-redshift galaxies behind those clusters and in the field, including our detection of Lyα emission from a redshift z=8.68 object.

We present X-ray (Chandra), ultraviolet (Swift/UVOT; U band) and optical-infrared (Liverpool Telescope; griz bands) continuum light curves of Q0957+561 observed in the first half of 2010. A cross-correlation analysis of the light curves shows that the U-band fluctuation leads the other variations at higher and lower energies. The study constrains the geometry of the continuum emission regions in a distant radio-loud AGN for the first time. We note that our work opens a new window in echo-mapping of high-z AGNs with the use of lensed quasars, since the variability of some of the images of a given multiply-imaged quasar can be predicted in advance, provided there is a modest optical follow-up of the system.