Kavli Affiliate: Joshua Frieman
| First 5 Authors: Anowar J. Shajib, Karl Glazebrook, Tania Barone, Geraint F. Lewis, Tucker Jones
| Summary:
Imaging data is the principal observable required to use galaxy-scale strong
lensing in a multitude of applications in extragalactic astrophysics and
cosmology. In this paper, we develop Lensing Exposure Time Calculator
(LensingETC) to optimize the efficiency of telescope time usage when planning
multi-filter imaging campaigns for galaxy-scale strong lenses. This tool
simulates realistic data tailored to specified instrument characteristics and
then automatically models them to assess the power of the data in constraining
lens model parameters. We demonstrate a use case of this tool by optimizing a
two-filter observing strategy (in IR and UVIS) within the limited exposure time
per system allowed by a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Snapshot program. We find
that higher resolution is more advantageous to gain constraining power on the
lensing observables, when there is a trade-off between signal-to-noise ratio
and resolution; e.g., between the UVIS and IR filters of the HST. We also find
that, whereas a point spread function (PSF) with sub-Nyquist sampling allows
the sample mean for a model parameter to be robustly recovered for both
galaxy-galaxy and point-source lensing systems, a sub-Nyquist sampled PSF
introduces a larger scatter than a Nyquist sampled one in the deviation from
the ground truth for point-source lens systems.
| Search Query: ArXiv Query: search_query=au:”Joshua Frieman”&id_list=&start=0&max_results=3