Line-of-sight shear in SLACS strong lenses I: shear and mass model parametrisations

TL;DR

This study measures line-of-sight shear in 23 strong gravitational lenses from SLACS, using a minimal shear model and automated lens modeling to provide new insights into lensing distortions and their cosmological implications.

Contribution

It introduces the first measurement of LOS shear in SLACS lenses using a theoretically safe minimal model and confirms the robustness of this approach with mock data.

Findings

Mean LOS shear magnitude of 0.056 ± 0.013

Neglecting post-Born correction affects shear measurements

Octupole moments do not improve shear agreement with weak lensing expectations

Abstract

Inhomogeneities along the line of sight in strong gravitational lensing distort the images produced, in an effect called shear. If measurable, this shear may provide independent constraints on cosmological parameters, complementary to traditional cosmic shear. We model 23 strong gravitational lenses from the Sloan Lens ACS (SLACS) catalogue with the aim of measuring the line-of-sight (LOS) shear for the first time. We use the 'minimal model' for the LOS shear, which has been shown to be theoretically safe from degeneracies with lens model parameters, a finding which has been confirmed using mock data. We use the dolphin automated modelling pipeline, which uses the lenstronomy software as a modelling engine, to model our selected lenses. Across the 23 lenses, we measure the LOS shear with a mean magnitude of $0.056 \pm 0.013$. Neglecting the post-Born correction to the potential of the main deflector due to foreground shear leads to a propagation of degeneracies in the LOS shear measurement with other lens model parameters, and the inclusion of an octupole moment in the lens mass profile does not lead to shear measurements that are in better agreement with the expectations from weak lensing.