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

这个项目将模拟宇宙学的元素，并将其与观测结果进行比较，特别是使用充当透镜的强大引力场。我们的目标是了解引力透镜是否可以用来理解宇宙学性质。使这一项目成为可能的是越来越多的强引力透镜样本。这些透镜是大质量星系和星系团，它们是如此之大，以至于弯曲来自更远背景物体的光线，并通过透镜物体附近。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、遥远的物体以及源、透镜和我们之间的空间，并确定宇宙的基本性质。这个项目要回答的主要问题是：作为透镜的宇宙中最大质量物体的性质，是否与天文学家通过模拟宇宙所做的预测相符？如果是这样的话，它们可以用来理解更根本的问题。如果没有，天文学家将更好地了解需要对他们的模拟做些什么来改进它们。这个项目现在是可能的，因为观察到的透镜对象的数量增加了。除了项目的科学部分，PI还通过与来自国家聋人技术学院的6名聋人本科生合作，增加美国科学家的多样性，他们是芝加哥大学的暑期合作学生。通过让他们在学术生涯早期参与科学研究，这个项目旨在开辟他们原本无法涉足的职业道路。学生们将开发一个移动应用程序，作为“公民科学”的门户；该项目通过参与科学分析的核心视觉分类，吸引更广泛的公众。与之前公民科学在天文学方面的努力不同，这个项目的目标是通过他们现在最常用的电子工具(平板电脑和手机)接触到公民，并使用应用程序而不是网页将大部分互动投射到更像游戏的环境中。学生们将被鼓励参加外展活动，特别是芝加哥更广泛的聋人公众，目的是激发更年轻公民对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”部分做到了这一点，并通过帮助培养下一代不同个体对STEM活动的兴趣和教育，促进了国家的健康、繁荣和福利。宇宙学模拟正在成为分析广泛的银河系外数据的支柱。这些分析数不胜数，包括我们努力了解所有可观测的离散河外天体、从X射线到无线电的综合直接背景、所有这些结构对观测到的宇宙微波背景的影响，以及对这种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，最重要的是要针对广泛的观测数据对它们进行严格的测试。这项测试是对算法和模拟内容的检查，也是对模拟所显示的物理性质的测试。宇宙中最大质量的光晕(来自星系和星系团)的强烈透镜是宇宙学模拟和真实宇宙之间的一个独特的连接点。给出一个模拟，有力地预测强透镜效应，只需要一些相当简单的光线跟踪即可。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：即在这种体制下，真实宇宙和模拟宇宙之间的一致性很差。如果拟议的比较驳斥了这一长期以来提出的担忧，那么对现有模型和引发它的模拟的一个重大挑战实际上将不复存在。相反，如果这个长期存在的问题得到加强，那么拟议的对透镜统计数据的详细检查将阐明原因，以及必须如何推进模拟以确保一致性。无论哪种结果，都将显著推动这一领域的发展。模拟样品和观测到的真实样品之间的比较将在许多透镜和透镜性质上进行，以多种方式测试它们的匹配或不匹配，跨越整个相关的红移柱，并在晕质量中测试20年。这样的分析以前从未可能或尝试过，只有现在才有可能，因为在真实的强透镜样品和模拟方面都取得了快速进展。

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.