arXiv subjects

H. R. Larsson

Publications and source records attributed to H. R. Larsson.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Measurement of the minimum cold dark matter halo mass with strong gravitational lensing

We explore the lowest mass limit that can be placed on the halo mass function in CDM using 28 strong gravitational lenses. For this purpose, we study an extreme model in which the halo mass function and mass-concentration relation follow CDM, with a sharp cutoff at some mass scale, $m_{\rm{low}}$. Lensing provides a unique window into this quantity as it does not depend on the presence of baryons in dark matter halos and also allows the detection of low mass halos at cosmological distances, both in the lens galaxies and along the line-of-sight. Our model incorporates the effects of tidal stripping of subhalos, leading to the presence of many subhalos below a given model cutoff scale. We place an upper limit on the low-mass cutoff of the halo mass function of $m_{\rm{low}}<10^{8.3}$ M$_\odot$ at 10:1 odds using a prior for the normalization of the subhalo mass function from the semi-analytic model {\tt galacticus} and $m_{\rm{low}}<10^{8.2}$ M$_\odot$ at 10:1 odds using a prior from $N$-body simulations. These limits are comparable to, or stronger than, existing constraints based on Milky Way satellite galaxies. Based on these results, we forecast more than an order of magnitude improvement with a sample of 200 quadruply imaged quasar lenses. This number represents a small subset of the thousands that are anticipated to be discovered by Rubin, Euclid, and Roman. Furthermore, with this larger sample of lenses we expect to directly constrain the normalization of the subhalo mass function, thereby eliminating a major source of uncertainty in our current measurements.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2026

The free-streaming length of dark matter from JWST observations of 28 strong gravitational lenses

The formation of gravitationally bound overdensities of dark matter (DM), or \textit{halos}, is a generic prediction of theories with particle DM. We present a measurement of halo properties in 28 quadruple image strong lens systems recently observed by JWST, and use these observations to constrain the free-streaming length, $λ_{\rm{FS}}$, of DM, a quantity that depends on the DM particle mass and formation mechanism. We improve on previous lensing analyses by simultaneously reconstructing extended lensed arcs with image positions and relative magnifications, enhancing sensitivity to perturbations by halos. Our analysis rules out deviations from the predictions of cold dark matter (CDM) on scales above $10^{7.2} M_{\odot}$ and $10^{7.4} M_{\odot}$ for subhalo abundance predicted by cosmological $N$-body simulations and semi-analytic models, respectively. These bounds correspond to upper limits $λ_{\rm{FS}}<6.0 \ \rm{kpc}$ and $λ_{\rm{FS}}<7.0 \ \rm{kpc}$, and lower limits on the mass of a spin--1/2 thermal relic DM particle $m_{\rm{therm}}>7.4 \ \rm{keV}$ and $m_{\rm{therm}}>6.5 \ \rm{keV}$. Conversely, assuming a negligible free-streaming length, as predicted by CDM, we measure a projected mass in subhalos around elliptical galaxies $1.7_{-1.2}^{+2.6} \times 10^7 \ \mathrm{M}_{\odot} \ \rm{kpc^{-2}}$ at $95 \%$ confidence. These inferences confirm key predictions of the CDM paradigm.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2025

JWST Lensed Quasar Dark Matter Survey III: Dark Matter Sensitive Flux Ratios and Warm Dark Matter Constraint from the Full Sample

We present the full sample of measurements of the warm dust emission of 31 strongly-lensed, multiply imaged quasars, observed with JWST MIRI multiband imaging, which we use to constrain the particle properties of dark matter. The strongly lensed warm dust region of quasars is compact and statistically sensitive to a population of dark matter halos down to masses of $10^6$ M$_\odot$. The high spatial resolution and infrared sensitivity of MIRI make it uniquely suited to measure multiply imaged warm dust emission from quasars and thus to infer the properties of low-mass dark halos. We use the measured flux ratios to test for a warm dark matter turnover in the halo mass function. To infer the dark matter parameters, we use a forward modeling pipeline which explores dark matter parameters while also accounting for tidal stripping effects on subhalos, globular clusters, and complex deflector macromodels with $m=1, m=3, \text{ and } m=4$ elliptical multipole moments. Adopting a comparable prior on the projected density of substructure to our previous analyses, the data presented here provide a factor of 2 improvement in sensitivity to a turnover in the halo mass function. Assuming subhalo abundance predicted by the semi-analytic model galacticus we infer with a Bayes factor of 10:1, a half-mode mass $m_{\rm{hm}} < 10^{7.8} M_{\odot}$ (m>5.6 keV for a thermally produced dark matter particle). If instead we use a prior from N-body simulations, we infer $m_{\rm{hm}} < 10^{7.6} M_{\odot}$ (m>6.4 keV). This is one of the strongest constraints to date on a turnover on the halo mass function, and the flux ratios and inference methodology presented here can be used to test a broad range of dark matter physics.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2019

Global optimization of parameters in the reactive force field ReaxFF for SiOH

We have used unbiased global optimization to fit a reactive force field to a given set of reference data. Specifically, we have employed genetic algorithms (GA) to fit ReaxFF to SiOH data, using an in-house GA code that is parallelized across reference data items via the message-passing interface (MPI). Details of GA tuning turn out to be far less important for global optimization efficiency than using suitable ranges within which the parameters are varied. To establish these ranges, either prior knowledge can be used or successive stages of GA optimizations, each building upon the best parameter vectors and ranges found in the previous stage. We finally arrive at optimized force fields with smaller error measures than those published previously. Hence, this optimization approach will contribute to converting force-field fitting from a specialist task to an everyday commodity, even for the more difficult case of reactive force fields.

physics.comp-ph↗