Joint Bayesian Source and Lens Reconstruction for Multi-messenger Binary Black Holes

TL;DR

This paper introduces 'silmarel', a software package that links gravitational wave events with electromagnetic observations to identify lensed binary black holes, facilitating multi-messenger astrophysics.

Contribution

The paper presents the first software tool to connect gravitational wave data with electromagnetic lensing observations for binary black holes.

Findings

Demonstrated potential of software in mock data analyses

Enables joint analysis of LVK gravitational waves and telescope data

Facilitates future multi-messenger binary black hole studies

Abstract

If a gravitational wave event is lensed by a cluster or galaxy in our line-of-sight, it is expected that its host galaxy would also be lensed. Therefore, connecting lensed gravitational wave events even without direct optical counterpart could be feasible by identifying matching lenses in electromagnetic data and surveys. Seminal work has demonstrated the potential of this approach in LVK, Euclid, HST, JWST, and CSST mock data, motivating the need for a dedicated software package to perform such analyses in practice. Here, we present the alpha-version of silmarel, the first software package designed to bridge these cosmic signals and enable us analysis of real LVK gravitational-wave binaries together with telescope observations from instruments like \textit{Euclid} or \textit{Hubble} Space Telescope, and the future of multimessenger binary black hole lensing.