Model-independent and model-based local lensing properties of CL0024+1654 from multiply-imaged galaxies

TL;DR

This study compares model-independent and model-based methods to determine local lensing properties of CL0024+1654, finding high agreement and highlighting biases and the efficiency of model-independent approaches for analyzing multiply-imaged galaxies.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive comparison of model-independent and parametric/non-parametric model-based lensing analyses for a galaxy cluster, assessing precision and biases in local lens property determination.

Findings

High agreement among methods on local lens properties

Lenstool provides tighter confidence bounds with fewer constraints

Model-independent approach achieves comparable precision quickly

Abstract

We investigate to which precision local magnification ratios, $\mathcal{J}$, ratios of convergences, $f$, and reduced shears, $g = (g_{1}, g_{2})$, can be determined model-independently for the five resolved multiple images of the source at $z_\mathrm{s}=1.675$ in CL0024. We also determine if a comparison to the respective results obtained by the parametric modelling program Lenstool and by the non-parametric modelling program Grale can detect biases in the lens models. For these model-based approaches we additionally analyse the influence of the number and location of the constraints from multiple images on the local lens properties determined at the positions of the five multiple images of the source at $z_\mathrm{s}=1.675$. All approaches show high agreement on the local values of $\mathcal{J}$, $f$, and $g$. We find that Lenstool obtains the tightest confidence bounds even for convergences around one using constraints from six multiple image systems, while the best Grale model is generated only using constraints from all multiple images with resolved brightness features and adding limited small-scale mass corrections. Yet, confidence bounds as large as the values themselves can occur for convergences close to one in all approaches. Our results are in agreement with previous findings, supporting the light-traces-mass assumption and the merger hypothesis for CL0024. Comparing the three different approaches allows to detect modelling biases. Given that the lens properties remain approximately constant over the extension of the image areas covered by the resolvable brightness features, the model-independent approach determines the local lens properties to a comparable precision but within less than a second. (shortened)