arXiv subjects

Hannah R. Stacey

Publications and source records attributed to Hannah R. Stacey.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

The Koi Pond: A Strongly Lensed Protocluster Core hosting a Diverse Population of DSFGs

We present James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) observations of PJ0846+15, \textit{The Koi Pond}, a strongly lensed protocluster core at Cosmic Noon. This field offers a magnified view of 11 dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) all at $z=2.67$ (within $ΔV=800$ km s$^{-1}$) spanning a projected extent of $>300$ kpc lensed by a $z=0.77$ foreground cluster. NIRCam and ALMA Band 6 continuum measurements map the stellar distribution and thermal dust emission respectively at a spatial resolution of $\sim$0.15$^{\prime\prime}$. This analysis reveals a diverse population of DSFGs, with evidence of both interacting and non-interacting systems exhibiting a wide range of morphological features including spiral arms, bars, bulges, clumps/stellar clusters, tidal tails/debris and displaced molecular gas reservoirs. Comparing the rest-frame J- band continuum (F444W) vs (i-J) color (F277W$-$F444W), we find a wide range of values, suggesting a $>$1-dex spread in stellar mass and a dust attenuation reddening of $ΔA_{\mathrm{V}} > 1$ mag. The DSFG members exhibit varying dust sizes relative to the stellar emission, ranging from compact dusty cores to galaxy-wide emission. Resolved color maps of individual sources showing a spread as high as F277W$-$F444W$=2$ mag suggesting complex stellar-to-dust geometry. Although gas-rich mergers are identified in the core, the most red and dust emitting members are disks exhibiting clumpy structure indicating secular growth can drive these starburst events. Such a remarkable range in properties within this sample suggest DSFGs in protocluster core environments follow diverse evolutionary pathways towards their transition into quiescent, elliptical cluster galaxies.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2026

Shaping the future of Global Interferometric Arrays: Imaging Strong Gravity and Magnetic Fields

The observational validation of General Relativity (GR) has been propelled in recent years by recent breakthroughs in Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) augmented by ALMA. We explore ALMA2040 opportunities to transform these studies through greatly improved sensitivity and a multi-frequency approach. The focus will be on placing most stringent constraints on GR and alternative theories in the strong-gravity regime, and on understanding the formation and launching of relativistic jets.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2024

Radio imaging of gravitationally lensed radio-quiet quasars

We present 6-GHz Very Large Array radio images of 70 gravitational lens systems at 300-mas resolution, in which the source is an optically-selected quasar, and nearly all of which have two lensed images. We find that about in half of the systems (40/70, with 33/70 secure), one or more lensed images are detected down to our detection limit of 20microJy/beam, similar to previous investigations and reinforcing the conclusion that typical optically-selected quasars have intrinsic GHz radio flux densities of a few microJy ($\sim10^{23}$WHz$^{-1}$ at redshifts of 1--2). In addition, for ten cases it is likely that the lensing galaxies are detected in the radio. Available detections of, and limits on the far-infrared luminosities from the literature, suggest that nearly all of the sample lie on the radio-FIR correlation typical of star-forming galaxies, and that their radio luminosities are at least compatible with the radio emission being produced by star formation processes. One object, WISE2329$-$1258, has an extra radio component that is not present in optical images, and is difficult to explain using simple lens models. In-band spectral indices, where these can be determined, are generally moderately steep and consistent with synchrotron processes either from star-formation/supernovae or AGN. Comparison of the A/B image flux ratios at radio and optical wavelengths suggests a 10 per cent level contribution from finite source effects or optical extinction to the optical flux ratios, together with sporadic larger discrepancies that are likely to be due to optical microlensing.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2022

A lensed radio jet at milli-arcsecond resolution I: Bayesian comparison of parametric lens models

We investigate the mass structure of a strong gravitational lens galaxy at $z=0.350$, taking advantage of the milli-arcsecond (mas) angular resolution of very long baseline interferometric (VLBI) observations. In the first analysis of its kind at this resolution, we jointly infer the lens model parameters and pixellated radio source surface brightness. We consider several lens models of increasing complexity, starting from an elliptical power-law density profile. We extend this model to include angular multipole structures, a separate stellar mass component, additional nearby field galaxies, and/or a generic external potential. We compare these models using their relative Bayesian log-evidence (Bayes factor). We find strong evidence for angular structure in the lens; our best model is comprised of a power-law profile plus multipole perturbations and external potential, with a Bayes factor of $+14984$ relative to the elliptical power-law model. It is noteworthy that the elliptical power-law mass distribution is a remarkably good fit on its own, with additional model complexity correcting the deflection angles only at the $\sim5$ mas level. We also consider the effects of added complexity in the lens model on time-delay cosmography and flux-ratio analyses. We find that an overly simplistic power-law ellipsoid lens model can bias the measurement of $H_0$ by $\sim3$ per cent and mimic flux ratio anomalies of $\sim8$ per cent. Our results demonstrate the power of high-resolution VLBI observations to provide strong constraints on the inner density profiles of lens galaxies.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2021

Detecting low-mass haloes with strong gravitational lensing I: the effect of data quality and lensing configuration

This paper aims to quantify how the lowest halo mass that can be detected with galaxy-galaxy strong gravitational lensing depends on the quality of the observations and the characteristics of the observed lens systems. Using simulated data, we measure the lowest detectable NFW mass at each location of the lens plane, in the form of detailed \emph{sensitivity maps}. In summary, we find that: (i) the lowest detectable mass $M_{\rm low}$ decreases linearly as the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) increases and the sensitive area is larger when we decrease the noise; (ii) a moderate increase in angular resolution (0.07" vs 0.09") and pixel scale (0.01" vs 0.04") improves the sensitivity by on average 0.25 dex in halo mass, with more significant improvement around the most sensitive regions; (iii) the sensitivity to low-mass objects is largest for bright and complex lensed galaxies located inside the caustic curves and lensed into larger Einstein rings (i.e $r_{E}\geq1.0"$). We find that for the sensitive mock images considered in this work, the minimum mass that we can detect at the redshift of the lens lies between $1.5\times10^{8}$ and $3\times10^{9}M_{\odot}$. We derive analytic relations between $M_{\rm low}$, the SNR and resolution and discuss the impact of the lensing configuration and source structure. Our results start to fill the gap between approximate predictions and real data and demonstrate the challenging nature of calculating precise forecasts for gravitational imaging. In light of our findings, we discuss possible strategies for designing strong lensing surveys and the prospects for HST, Keck, ALMA, Euclid and other future observations.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2020

A novel approach to visibility-space modelling of interferometric gravitational lens observations at high angular resolution

We present a new gravitational lens modelling technique designed to model high-resolution interferometric observations with large numbers of visibilities without the need to pre-average the data in time or frequency. We demonstrate the accuracy of the method using validation tests on mock observations. Using small data sets with $\sim 10^3$ visibilities, we first compare our approach with the more traditional direct Fourier transform (DFT) implementation and direct linear solver. Our tests indicate that our source inversion is indistinguishable from that of the DFT. Our method also infers lens parameters to within 1 to 2 per cent of both the ground truth and DFT, given sufficiently high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). When the SNR is as low as 5, both approaches lead to errors of several tens of per cent in the lens parameters and a severely disrupted source structure, indicating that this is related to the SNR and choice of priors rather than the modelling technique itself. We then analyze a large data set with $\sim 10^8$ visibilities and a SNR matching real global Very Long Baseline Interferometry observations of the gravitational lens system MG J0751+2716. The size of the data is such that it cannot be modelled with traditional implementations. Using our novel technique, we find that we can infer the lens parameters and the source brightness distribution, respectively, with an RMS error of 0.25 and 0.97 per cent relative to the ground truth.

astro-ph.IM↗