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Ana Sainz de Murieta

Publications and source records attributed to Ana Sainz de Murieta.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

A Salpeter IMF and an NFW halo: Disentangling the dark and stellar mass of an elliptical galaxy through precise lens modelling of a double-source-plane system

We present a strong lensing analysis of the double source plane lens J0946+1006 (colloquially "Jackpot" lens) to measure the inner dark matter density profile, the stellar-to-halo mass ratio, and the stellar initial mass function normalisation using a two component stellar plus dark matter mass model. The stellar mass follows a multi-Gaussian expansion light model with a free global mass-to-light ratio and an allowed radial $M/L$ gradient, while the dark matter is described by an elliptical generalised NFW halo. The double-source-plane geometry provides additional leverage against the mass-sheet transformation and helps constrain the radial mass profile. Despite allowing both a radial stellar $M/L$ gradient and a generalised NFW halo, the data prefer the canonical picture: an approximately constant stellar mass-to-light ratio with a Salpeter-like IMF normalisation, and a dark matter halo consistent with NFW. We infer $M_{\star} = 4.4^{+0.25}_{-0.39}\times 10^{11}\,M_{\odot}$ and an inner halo slope $γ_{\rm in}^{\rm halo} = 1.04^{+0.10}_{-0.14}$. The halo mass is $M_{200}^{\rm halo} = 1.11^{+0.37}_{-0.32}\times 10^{13}\,M_{\odot}$, implying $\log_{10}(M_{200}/M_{\star})=1.41^{+0.13}_{-0.14}$. At fixed halo mass, the inferred stellar mass lies $\sim0.1$ dex above typical literature stellar halo mass relations at similar redshift, which is comparable to the intrinsic scatter of these relations. We expect this approach to provide a practical template for future dark matter studies with the large double-source-plane lens samples from Euclid.

astro-ph.GA↗

iPTF16geu through the lens of thermonuclear explosion models

The magnification resulting from strong gravitational lensing is a powerful tool to add new constraints to the cosmic evolution of supernova progenitors by enabling the study of distant supernovae that would otherwise not be observable. iPTF16geu is the most well-observed gravitationally lensed supernova (glSN) to date. At a redshift of $z = 0.409$ and magnified by a factor of $\sim$68, extensive photometric and spectroscopic observations have been obtained. The explosion mechanism producing this rare event and differences compared to lower redshift supernovae however have not been explored in detail. Here we compare observations of iPTF16geu to existing radiative transfer simulations of type Ia supernova explosion models selected from the literature. We find that overall the DDC6, PDDEL1, and N10 models produce the closest match to the light curves and many absorption features, providing some evidence in favour of the delayed detonation scenario. All models struggle however to replicate the observed colours and in particular the rest-frame UV. We also investigate the magnification and reddening values required to improve agreement with the selected models. Upcoming surveys will significantly increase the samples of SNe discovered at high redshifts due to strong gravitational lensing. These glSNe will enable tighter constraints on the explosion physics of type Ia supernovae and how this has evolved throughout the Universe.

astro-ph.HE↗

Stars as cosmic scales: measuring stellar mass with microlensed supernovae

Gravitational microlensing is a unique probe of the stellar content in strong lens galaxies. Flux ratio anomalies from gravitationally lensed supernovae (glSNe), just like lensed quasars, can be used to constrain the stellar mass fractions at the image positions. Type Ia supernovae are of particular interest as knowledge of the intrinsic source brightness helps constrain the amount of (de)magnification from the macromodel predictions that might be due to microlensing. In addition, the presence or absence of caustic crossings in the light curves of glSNe can be used to constrain the mass of the microlenses. We find that a sample of 50 well-modeled glSNe Ia systems with single epoch observations at peak intrinsic supernova luminosity should be able to constrain an average stellar mass-to-light ratio to within $\sim 15\%$. A set of systems with light curve level information providing the location (or absence) of caustic crossing events can also constrain the mass of the microlenses to within $\sim 50\%$. Much work is needed to make such a measurement in practice, but our results demonstrate the feasibility of microlensing to place constraints on astrophysical parameters related to the initial mass function of lensing galaxies without any prior assumptions on the stellar mass.

astro-ph.GA↗

A Swift analysis of the Eras tour set list and implications for astrophysics research (Taylor's version)

Popular culture plays a significant role in shaping public interest in science, and Taylor Swift's discography frequently incorporates astrophysics terminology. This study examines the occurrence of astrophysics-related words in her lyrics and their representation in the Eras tour set list. By analyzing the frequency of words in Swift's total discography, we identify that astrophysics is promoted the most within her most recent album, The Tortured Poets Department, whereas songs from Midnights promoted astrophysics the most throughout the Eras tour. We catagorize words into various disciplines of astrophysics and find that multimessenger astronomy is promoted the most, both in Swift's total discography and throughout the Eras tour. We perform Taylor expansion and predict $12 \pm 5$ astrophysical terms in Swift's next album. This analysis offers a unique perspective on the intersection of music and science, revealing how Swift's artistry may unintentionally promote interest in different fields of astrophysics.

astro-ph.GA↗

Find the haystacks, then look for needles: The rate of strongly lensed transients in galaxy-galaxy strong gravitational lenses

The time delay between appearances of multiple images of a gravitationally lensed supernova (glSN) is sensitive to the Hubble constant, $H_0$. As well as time delays, a lensed host galaxy is needed to enable precise inference of $H_0$. In this work we investigate the connection between discoverable lensed transients and their host galaxies. We find that LSST will discover 88 glSNe per year, of which $54\%$ will also have a strongly lensed host. The rates can change by approximately 30 percent uncertainty depending primarily on the choice of unlensed SN population and uncertainties in the redshift evolution of the deflector population, but the fraction of glSNe with a lensed host is consistently around a half. LSST will discover 20 glSNe per year in systems that could plausibly have been identified by Euclid as galaxy-galaxy lenses before the discovery of the glSN. Such systems have preferentially longer time delays and therefore are well suited for cosmography. We define a golden sample of glSNe Ia with time delays over 10 days, image separations greater than 0.8 arcseconds, and a multiply imaged host. For this golden sample, we find $91\%$ occur in systems that should already be discoverable as galaxy-galaxy lenses in Euclid. For cosmology with glSNe, monitoring Euclid lenses is a plausible alternative to searching the entire LSST alert stream.

astro-ph.CO↗

How to Break the Mass Sheet Degeneracy with the Lightcurves of Microlensed Type Ia Supernovae

The standardizable nature of gravitationally lensed Type Ia supernovae (glSNe Ia) makes them an attractive target for time delay cosmography, since a source with known luminosity breaks the mass sheet degeneracy. It is known that microlensing by stars in the lensing galaxy can add significant stochastic uncertainty to the unlensed luminosity which is often much larger than the intrinsic scatter of the Ia population. In this work, we show how the temporal microlensing variations as the supernova disc expands can be used to improve the standardization of glSNe Ia. We find that SNe are standardizable if they do not cross caustics as they expand. We estimate that this will be the case for $\approx$6 doubly imaged systems and $\approx$0.3 quadruply imaged systems per year in LSST. At the end of the ten year LSST survey, these systems should enable us to test for systematics in $H_0$ due to the mass sheet degeneracy at the $1.00^{+0.07}_{-0.06}$\% level, or $1.8\pm0.2$\% if we can only extract time delays from the third of systems with counter images brighter than $i=24$ mag.

astro-ph.GA↗

Lensed type Ia supernovae in light of SN Zwicky and iPTF16geu

Strong gravitationally lensed supernovae (glSNe) are a powerful probe to obtain a measure of the expansion rate of the Universe, but they are also extremely rare. To date, only two glSNe with multiple images strongly lensed by galaxies have been found, but their short time delays make them unsuitable for cosmography. Here, we simulate a realistic catalogue of lensed supernovae and study the characteristics of the population of detectable systems for different surveys. Compared to previous studies, our simulations also account for the effect of microlensing and its impact on the glSNe yields. We show that the properties of glSNe in shallow surveys (such as the Zwicky Transient Facility; ZTF) are determined by the need for large magnifications, which favours systems of four images with short time delays and low image separations. This picture is consistent with the properties of iPTF16geu and SN Zwicky, but is not representative of the population found in deeper surveys, which are limited by the volume of the Universe that is strongly lensed. For deeper surveys, such as the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), glSNe show longer time delays and greater angular separations, and the inclusion of microlensing results in 8$\%$ of glSNe becoming demagnified under the detection threshold. In the 10 years of the survey LSST should be able to find $\approx$ 180 systems, of which 70 will be suited for cosmography enabling a $\approx$ 1.2$\%$ precision $H_0$ measurement with LSST glSNe.

astro-ph.CO↗