Caustics: A Python Package for Accelerated Strong Gravitational Lensing Simulations

TL;DR

The paper introduces 'caustics', a Python package optimized for fast and large-scale simulations of strong gravitational lensing, crucial for upcoming extensive astrophysical surveys.

Contribution

It presents a new Python package that significantly accelerates the modeling of strong gravitational lensing systems for large-scale astrophysical studies.

Findings

Achieves faster simulations of lensing systems

Enables handling of large datasets for upcoming surveys

Improves computational efficiency in lens modeling

Abstract

Gravitational lensing is the deflection of light rays due to the gravity of intervening masses. This phenomenon is observed in a variety of scales and configurations, involving any non-uniform mass such as planets, stars, galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and even the large scale structure of the universe. Strong lensing occurs when the distortions are significant and multiple images of the background source are observed. The lens objects must align on the sky of order ~1 arcsecond for galaxy-galaxy lensing, or 10's of arcseonds for cluster-galaxy lensing. As the discovery of lens systems has grown to the low thousands, these systems have become pivotal for precision measurements and addressing critical questions in astrophysics. Notably, they facilitate the measurement of the Universe's expansion rate, dark matter, supernovae, quasars, and the first stars among other topics. With future surveys expected to discover hundreds of thousands of lensing systems, the modelling and simulation of such systems must occur at orders of magnitude larger scale then ever before. Here we present `caustics`, a Python package designed to handle the extensive computational demands of modeling such a vast number of lensing systems.