Cosmological Strong Lensing: A Public Comparison of Theory with New Data Across Mass and Redshift

该项目将模拟宇宙学的元素，并将其与观测结果进行比较，特别是使用强引力场作为透镜。 目标是了解引力透镜是否可以用来理解宇宙学性质。 使这个项目成为可能的是越来越多的强引力透镜样本。 这些透镜是大质量的星系和星系团，它们是如此之大，以至于它们使来自更远背景物体并通过透镜物体附近的光发生弯曲。 研究这些透镜和透镜物体将使研究人员能够研究星系和星系团的质量，暗物质的数量，遥远的物体和源，透镜和我们之间的空间，并确定宇宙的基本属性。 这个项目要回答的主要问题是：宇宙中最大质量的物体的性质是否与天文学家模拟宇宙的预测相匹配？如果是这样，它们可以用来理解更基本的问题。 如果没有，天文学家将更好地了解需要做些什么来改进他们的模拟。 由于观测到的透镜状物体数量的增加，该项目现在成为可能。除了该项目的科学部分，PI还与来自国家聋人技术研究所的六名聋人本科生合作，作为芝加哥大学的暑期合作学生，增加美国科学家的多样性。通过让他们在学术生涯的早期参与科学研究，该项目旨在开辟他们无法踏上的职业道路。学生们将开发一个移动的应用程序，作为“公民科学”的门户网站;该项目通过参与对科学分析至关重要的视觉分类来吸引更广泛的公众。与天文学中公民科学的先前努力不同，该计划旨在通过他们现在最常用的电子工具（平板电脑和手机）接触公民，并通过使用应用程序而不是网页将大部分互动投射到更“类似游戏”的设置中。我们将鼓励学生参与外展活动，特别是面向芝加哥广大聋人公众的活动，目的是激发年轻公民对STEM研究的兴趣。这个项目显然与NSF促进科学进步的使命有关。 此外，该项目的“更广泛的影响”部分也是这样做的，通过帮助培养下一代不同个体对STEM活动的兴趣和教育，促进国民健康、繁荣和福利。宇宙学模拟正在成为广泛的河外数据分析的支柱。这些分析有很多，涵盖了我们为了解所有可观测到的离散河外天体所做的努力，从X射线到无线电的综合直接背景，以及所有这些结构对观测到的宇宙微波背景的影响，以及对广泛信号的科学利用。模拟是规划和部署主要新设施和实验的核心。随着模拟在复杂性、范围和影响方面的发展，至关重要的是，它们必须针对广泛的可观测数据进行严格的测试。该测试对于算法和模拟内容的检查以及模拟所显示的物理特性的测试至关重要。宇宙中最大质量的晕（来自星系和星系团）的强透镜是宇宙学模拟和真实的宇宙之间的独特联系点。在给定模拟的情况下，预测强透镜效应只需要一些相当简单的光线追踪。通过将两个最大的大质量强透镜样本与现有最大的模拟进行比较，这一提议将毫不含糊地解决文献中长期存在的一个疑问：即在这种情况下，真实的和模拟宇宙之间的对应性很差。如果拟议中的比较反驳了这一长期存在的担忧，那么对现有模型和引发它的模拟的重大挑战将有效地退休。相反，如果这个长期存在的问题得到加强，那么对透镜统计数据的详细检查将阐明为什么以及如何进行模拟以确保对应性。无论哪种结果都将大大推动这一领域的发展。模拟和观测到的真实的样本之间的比较将在许多透镜和透镜性质上进行，以多种方式测试其匹配或缺乏，在整个相关的红移列中，以及晕质量的二十年。这样的分析以前从来没有可能或尝试过，并且由于真实的强透镜样本和模拟的快速进步，现在才成为可能。

This project will simulate elements of cosmology and compare those to observations, in particular using strong gravitational fields that act as lenses. The goal is to understand whether gravitational lenses can be used to understand the cosmological properties. What makes this project possible is the growing sample of strong gravitational lenses. These lenses are massive galaxies and clusters of galaxies that are so large they bend light coming from a more distant background object and passing near the lensing object. Studying these lenses and the lensed objects will allow the researchers to study the mass of the galaxies and clusters, the amount of dark matter, the distant object and space between the source, the lens, and us, and to determine fundamental properties of the universe. The main question to be answered by this project is: Do the properties of the most massive objects in the universe, which are acting as lenses, match those from astronomer's predictions from simulations of the unverse? If so, they can be used to understand more fundamental problems. If not, astronomers will have a better understanding of what needs to be done to their simulations to improve them. This project is possible now due to an increase in the number of observed lensing objects.In addition to the scientific portion of the project, the PI to increase diversity among American scientists by working with six Deaf undergraduate students from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, as summer co-op students at the University of Chicago. By engaging them in scientific research early in their academic careers, this project aims to open career paths that they would otherwise be unable to tread. The students will develop a mobile app as a portal for "citizen science"; and the project engages the broader public by enabling participation in the visual classifications central to the scientific analysis. Unlike prior efforts in citizen science in astronomy, this program aims to reach citizens through their now most commonly used electronic tools (tablets and phones) and by casting much of the interaction in a more "game-like" setting using an app, rather than webpages. The students will be encouraged to participate in outreach activities, particularly to the broader Deaf public in Chicago, with the aim of sparking interest in STEM studies in yet younger citizens.This project clearly relates to NSF's mission to promote the progress of science. In addition, the "Broader Impact" portion of the project does this, and advances the national health, prosperity and welfare by helping to develop interest in, and educating, STEM activities among the next generation of diverse individuals.Cosmological simulations are becoming the backbone of analysis for a wide range of extragalactic data. These analyses are numerous, spanning our efforts to understand all observable discrete extragalactic objects, integrated direct backgrounds from X- rays to the radio, and the influence of all that structure on the observed cosmic microwave background, as well as the scientific exploitation of that wide range of signals. Simulations are central to the planning and deployment of major new facilities and experiments. As simulations develop in complexity and scope, and impact, it is paramount that they are rigorously tested against a broad range of observables. This testing is critical as a check of algorithms and simulation contents, and as a test of the physics that the simulations evince. Strong lensing by the most massive halos (from galaxies and clusters of galaxies) in the universe is a unique point of connection between cosmological simulations, and the real cosmos. Robustly predicting strong lensing, given a simulation, requires only some fairly simple ray tracing. By comparing the two largest samples of massive strong lenses against the largest existing simulations, this proposal will address unambiguously a long-standing doubt in the literature: Namely that the correspondence between real and simulated universes in this regime is poor. If the proposed comparisons refute this long-suggested concern, a major challenge to the existing model and the simulations that evoke it will be effectively retired. Conversely, if this long held problem is reinforced, then the proposed detailed examination of the statistics of lensing will illuminate why, and how simulations must be advanced to ensure correspondence. Either result will move this field forward, significantly. Comparisons between simulations and observed real samples will be made across many lens and lensing properties, testing the match or lack thereof in multiple ways, across the entire relevant redshift column, and two decades in halo mass. Such an analysis has never before been possible or attempted, and is possible only now due to rapid advances in both real strong lensing samples, and simulations.