Uncovering a population of gravitational lens galaxies with magnified standard candle SN Zwicky

Ariel Goobar; Joel Johansson; Steve Schulze; Nikki Arendse; Ana Sagués Carracedo; Suhail Dhawan; Edvard Mörtsell; Christoffer Fremling; Lin Yan; Daniel Perley; Jesper Sollerman; Rémy Joseph; K. Ryan Hinds; William Meynardie; Igor Andreoni; Eric Bellm; Josh Bloom; Thomas E. Collett; Andrew Drake; Matthew Graham; Mansi Kasliwal; Shri R. Kulkarni; Cameron Lemon; Adam A. Miller; James D. Neill; Jakob Nordin; Justin Pierel; Johan Richard; Reed Riddle; Mickael Rigault; Ben Rusholme; Yashvi Sharma; Robert Stein; Gabrielle Stewart; Alice Townsend; Jozsef Vinko; J. Craig Wheeler; Avery Wold

doi:10.1038/s41550-023-01981-3

Uncovering a population of gravitational lens galaxies with magnified standard candle SN Zwicky

Ariel Goobar^*, Joel Johansson, Steve Schulze, Nikki Arendse, Ana Sagués Carracedo, Suhail Dhawan, Edvard Mörtsell, Christoffer Fremling, Lin Yan, Daniel Perley, Jesper Sollerman, Rémy Joseph, K. Ryan Hinds, William Meynardie, Igor Andreoni, Eric Bellm, Josh Bloom, Thomas E. Collett, Andrew Drake, Matthew GrahamMansi Kasliwal, Shri R. Kulkarni, Cameron Lemon, Adam A. Miller, James D. Neill, Jakob Nordin, Justin Pierel, Johan Richard, Reed Riddle, Mickael Rigault, Ben Rusholme, Yashvi Sharma, Robert Stein, Gabrielle Stewart, Alice Townsend, Jozsef Vinko, J. Craig Wheeler, Avery Wold

^*Corresponding author for this work

Physics and Astronomy

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Abstract

Detecting gravitationally lensed supernovae is among the biggest challenges in astronomy. It involves a combination of two very rare phenomena: catching the transient signal of a stellar explosion in a distant galaxy and observing it through a nearly perfectly aligned foreground galaxy that deflects light towards the observer. Here we describe how high-cadence optical observations with the Zwicky Transient Facility, with its unparalleled large field of view, led to the detection of a multiply imaged type Ia supernova, SN Zwicky, also known as SN 2022qmx. Magnified nearly 25-fold, the system was found thanks to the standard candle nature of type Ia supernovae. High-spatial-resolution imaging with the Keck telescope resolved four images of the supernova with very small angular separation, corresponding to an Einstein radius of only θ _E = 0.167″ and almost identical arrival times. The small θ _E and faintness of the lensing galaxy are very unusual, highlighting the importance of supernovae to fully characterize the properties of galaxy-scale gravitational lenses, including the impact of galaxy substructures.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	1098-1107
Number of pages	10
Journal	Nature Astronomy
Volume	7
Issue number	9
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-01981-3
State	Published - Sep 2023

Funding

This work is based on observations obtained with the 48 in. Samuel Oschin Telescope and the 60 in. telescope at the Palomar Observatory as part of the ZTF project. ZTF is supported by the National Science Foundation under grant AST-2034437 and a collaboration including Caltech, IPAC, the Weizmann Institute of Science, the Oskar Klein Center at Stockholm University, the University of Maryland, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron and Humboldt University, the TANGO Consortium of Taiwan, the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Trinity College Dublin, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, IN2P3, the University of Warwick, Ruhr University Bochum and Northwestern University. Operations are conducted by COO, IPAC and UW. SEDM is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant 1106171. This work has been supported by the research project grant ‘Understanding the Dynamic Universe’ funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation under Dnr KAW 2018.0067, and the G.R.E.A.T. research environment, funded by Vetenskapsrådet, the Swedish Research Council, project 2016-06012. M.R. acknowledges support from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement 759194—USNAC). A.G. acknowledges support from the Swedish Research Council under contract 2020-03444. E.M. acknowledges support from the Swedish Research Council under contract 2020-03384. T.E.C. is funded by a Royal Society University Research Fellowship and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (LensEra: grant agreement 945536). This work is also based on observations collected at the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere under ESO programmes 109.234A.001 and 109.24FN, and on observations made with the Nordic Optical Telescope, owned in collaboration by the University of Turku and Aarhus University, and operated jointly by Aarhus University, the University of Turku and the University of Oslo, representing Denmark, Finland and Norway, the University of Iceland and Stockholm University at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma, Spain, of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias. Some of the data presented here were obtained in part with ALFOSC, which is provided by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA) under a joint agreement with the University of Copenhagen and the Nordic Optical Telescope. Some were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. The Liverpool Telescope is operated on the island of La Palma by Liverpool John Moores University in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias with financial support from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council. This paper is also based in part on observations with the NASA/ESA HST obtained from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes at STScI; support was provided to J.P. through programme HST-GO-16264.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Astronomy and Astrophysics

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10.1038/s41550-023-01981-3

Cite this

Goobar, A., Johansson, J., Schulze, S., Arendse, N., Carracedo, A. S., Dhawan, S., Mörtsell, E., Fremling, C., Yan, L., Perley, D., Sollerman, J., Joseph, R., Hinds, K. R., Meynardie, W., Andreoni, I., Bellm, E., Bloom, J., Collett, T. E., Drake, A., ... Wold, A. (2023). Uncovering a population of gravitational lens galaxies with magnified standard candle SN Zwicky. Nature Astronomy, 7(9), 1098-1107. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-01981-3

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title = "Uncovering a population of gravitational lens galaxies with magnified standard candle SN Zwicky",

abstract = "Detecting gravitationally lensed supernovae is among the biggest challenges in astronomy. It involves a combination of two very rare phenomena: catching the transient signal of a stellar explosion in a distant galaxy and observing it through a nearly perfectly aligned foreground galaxy that deflects light towards the observer. Here we describe how high-cadence optical observations with the Zwicky Transient Facility, with its unparalleled large field of view, led to the detection of a multiply imaged type Ia supernova, SN Zwicky, also known as SN 2022qmx. Magnified nearly 25-fold, the system was found thanks to the standard candle nature of type Ia supernovae. High-spatial-resolution imaging with the Keck telescope resolved four images of the supernova with very small angular separation, corresponding to an Einstein radius of only θ E = 0.167″ and almost identical arrival times. The small θ E and faintness of the lensing galaxy are very unusual, highlighting the importance of supernovae to fully characterize the properties of galaxy-scale gravitational lenses, including the impact of galaxy substructures.",

author = "Ariel Goobar and Joel Johansson and Steve Schulze and Nikki Arendse and Carracedo, {Ana Sagu{\'e}s} and Suhail Dhawan and Edvard M{\"o}rtsell and Christoffer Fremling and Lin Yan and Daniel Perley and Jesper Sollerman and R{\'e}my Joseph and Hinds, {K. Ryan} and William Meynardie and Igor Andreoni and Eric Bellm and Josh Bloom and Collett, {Thomas E.} and Andrew Drake and Matthew Graham and Mansi Kasliwal and Kulkarni, {Shri R.} and Cameron Lemon and Miller, {Adam A.} and Neill, {James D.} and Jakob Nordin and Justin Pierel and Johan Richard and Reed Riddle and Mickael Rigault and Ben Rusholme and Yashvi Sharma and Robert Stein and Gabrielle Stewart and Alice Townsend and Jozsef Vinko and Wheeler, {J. Craig} and Avery Wold",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023, The Author(s).",

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doi = "10.1038/s41550-023-01981-3",

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Goobar, A, Johansson, J, Schulze, S, Arendse, N, Carracedo, AS, Dhawan, S, Mörtsell, E, Fremling, C, Yan, L, Perley, D, Sollerman, J, Joseph, R, Hinds, KR, Meynardie, W, Andreoni, I, Bellm, E, Bloom, J, Collett, TE, Drake, A, Graham, M, Kasliwal, M, Kulkarni, SR, Lemon, C, Miller, AA, Neill, JD, Nordin, J, Pierel, J, Richard, J, Riddle, R, Rigault, M, Rusholme, B, Sharma, Y, Stein, R, Stewart, G, Townsend, A, Vinko, J, Wheeler, JC & Wold, A 2023, 'Uncovering a population of gravitational lens galaxies with magnified standard candle SN Zwicky', Nature Astronomy, vol. 7, no. 9, pp. 1098-1107. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-01981-3

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T1 - Uncovering a population of gravitational lens galaxies with magnified standard candle SN Zwicky

AU - Goobar, Ariel

AU - Johansson, Joel

AU - Schulze, Steve

AU - Arendse, Nikki

AU - Carracedo, Ana Sagués

AU - Dhawan, Suhail

AU - Mörtsell, Edvard

AU - Fremling, Christoffer

AU - Yan, Lin

AU - Perley, Daniel

AU - Sollerman, Jesper

AU - Joseph, Rémy

AU - Hinds, K. Ryan

AU - Meynardie, William

AU - Andreoni, Igor

AU - Bellm, Eric

AU - Bloom, Josh

AU - Collett, Thomas E.

AU - Drake, Andrew

AU - Graham, Matthew

AU - Kasliwal, Mansi

AU - Kulkarni, Shri R.

AU - Lemon, Cameron

AU - Miller, Adam A.

AU - Neill, James D.

AU - Nordin, Jakob

AU - Pierel, Justin

AU - Richard, Johan

AU - Riddle, Reed

AU - Rigault, Mickael

AU - Rusholme, Ben

AU - Sharma, Yashvi

AU - Stein, Robert

AU - Stewart, Gabrielle

AU - Townsend, Alice

AU - Vinko, Jozsef

AU - Wheeler, J. Craig

AU - Wold, Avery

PY - 2023/9

Y1 - 2023/9

N2 - Detecting gravitationally lensed supernovae is among the biggest challenges in astronomy. It involves a combination of two very rare phenomena: catching the transient signal of a stellar explosion in a distant galaxy and observing it through a nearly perfectly aligned foreground galaxy that deflects light towards the observer. Here we describe how high-cadence optical observations with the Zwicky Transient Facility, with its unparalleled large field of view, led to the detection of a multiply imaged type Ia supernova, SN Zwicky, also known as SN 2022qmx. Magnified nearly 25-fold, the system was found thanks to the standard candle nature of type Ia supernovae. High-spatial-resolution imaging with the Keck telescope resolved four images of the supernova with very small angular separation, corresponding to an Einstein radius of only θ E = 0.167″ and almost identical arrival times. The small θ E and faintness of the lensing galaxy are very unusual, highlighting the importance of supernovae to fully characterize the properties of galaxy-scale gravitational lenses, including the impact of galaxy substructures.

AB - Detecting gravitationally lensed supernovae is among the biggest challenges in astronomy. It involves a combination of two very rare phenomena: catching the transient signal of a stellar explosion in a distant galaxy and observing it through a nearly perfectly aligned foreground galaxy that deflects light towards the observer. Here we describe how high-cadence optical observations with the Zwicky Transient Facility, with its unparalleled large field of view, led to the detection of a multiply imaged type Ia supernova, SN Zwicky, also known as SN 2022qmx. Magnified nearly 25-fold, the system was found thanks to the standard candle nature of type Ia supernovae. High-spatial-resolution imaging with the Keck telescope resolved four images of the supernova with very small angular separation, corresponding to an Einstein radius of only θ E = 0.167″ and almost identical arrival times. The small θ E and faintness of the lensing galaxy are very unusual, highlighting the importance of supernovae to fully characterize the properties of galaxy-scale gravitational lenses, including the impact of galaxy substructures.

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Uncovering a population of gravitational lens galaxies with magnified standard candle SN Zwicky

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