Measuring Line-of-sight Distances to Haloes with Astrometric Lensing B-mode

TL;DR

This paper explores how measuring astrometric B-mode signals in gravitational lensing can help determine line-of-sight halo distances and improve estimates of the Hubble constant by reducing uncertainties caused by mass-sheet degeneracies.

Contribution

It introduces a method to use astrometric B-mode measurements to break degeneracies and accurately estimate LOS halo distances and the Hubble constant.

Findings

B-mode measurements can determine LOS distance ratios.

Time delays reduce uncertainties in distance estimation.

B-mode helps break mass-sheet degeneracies.

Abstract

Relative astrometric shifts between multiply lensed images provide a valuable tool to investigate haloes in the intergalactic space. In strong lens systems in which a single lens plays the primary role in producing multiple images, the gravitational force exerted by line-of-sight (LOS) haloes can slightly change the relative positions of multiply lensed images produced by the dominant lens. In such cases, a LOS halo positioned sufficiently far from the dominant lens along the LOS can create a pattern in the reduced deflection angle that corresponds to the B-mode (magnetic or divergence-free mode). By measuring both the B-mode and E-mode (electric or rotation-free mode), we can determine the LOS distance ratios, as well as the 'bare' convergence and shear perturbations in the absence of the dominant lens. However, scale variations in the distance ratio lead to mass-sheet transformations in the background lens plane, introducing some uncertainty in the distance ratio estimation. This uncertainty can be significantly reduced by measuring the time delays between the lensed images. Additionally, if we obtain the redshift values of both the dominant and perturbing haloes, along with the time delays between the multiply lensed images that are affected by the haloes, the B-mode can break the degeneracy related to mass-sheet transformations in both the foreground and background lens planes. Therefore, measuring the astrometric lensing B-mode has the potential to substantially decrease the uncertainty in determining the Hubble constant.