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arXiv · 2609.08649

$\texttt{LensFactory.jl}$: A general-purpose strong lens modeling package

Ashish Kumar Meena
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Abstract

We present LensFactory.jl, an efficient, open-source, general-purpose strong lens modeling package written in Julia. It supports single- and multi-plane lensing with a wide range of analytic lens profiles, and its modular design, built on Julia's multiple dispatch, makes it straightforward to add new profiles or inference methods, while native multi-threading parallelizes the computationally expensive steps, enabling full cluster-scale lens reconstructions within hours on a desktop-class machine. We validate the mass-reconstruction pipeline of LensFactory.jl on two simulated galaxy clusters (Ares and Hera), recovering the convergence and magnification maps well where the lensing constraints lie, and on the JWST-observed cluster SMACS J0723.3-7327, obtaining a strong lens model (image-plane RMS of 0.46'') consistent with previously published results. In addition, we introduce singularity maps as a complementary diagnostic for comparing lens models, probing differences in the higher-order derivatives of the lensing potential, which remain largely unconstrained by standard observables such as image positions, time delays, and flux ratios. LensFactory.jl is accompanied by a set of worked examples covering all core functionality.

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Ashish Kumar Meena. 2026-09-08. $\texttt{LensFactory.jl}$: A general-purpose strong lens modeling package. https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.08649

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