Uncovering a population of gravitational lens galaxies with magnified standard candle SN Zwicky

Goobar, A ORCID: 0000-0002-4163-4996, Johansson, J, Schulze, S ORCID: 0000-0001-6797-1889, Arendse, N, Carracedo, AS ORCID: 0000-0002-3498-2167, Dhawan, S, Mörtsell, E, Fremling, C ORCID: 0000-0002-4223-103X, Yan, L, Perley, D ORCID: 0000-0001-8472-1996, Sollerman, J ORCID: 0000-0003-1546-6615, Joseph, R, Hinds, KR ORCID: 0000-0002-0129-806X, Meynardie, W, Andreoni, I, Bellm, E ORCID: 0000-0001-8018-5348, Bloom, J, Collett, TE ORCID: 0000-0001-5564-3140, Drake, A, Graham, M ORCID: 0000-0002-3168-0139 et al (2023) Uncovering a population of gravitational lens galaxies with magnified standard candle SN Zwicky. Nature Astronomy, 7 (9). pp. 1098-1107. ISSN 2397-3366

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Abstract

Detecting gravitationally lensed supernovae is among the biggest challenges in astronomy. It involves a combination of two very rare phenomena: catching the transient signal of a stellar explosion in a distant galaxy and observing it through a nearly perfectly aligned foreground galaxy that deflects light towards the observer. Here we describe how high-cadence optical observations with the Zwicky Transient Facility, with its unparalleled large field of view, led to the detection of a multiply imaged type Ia supernova, SN Zwicky, also known as SN 2022qmx. Magnified nearly 25-fold, the system was found thanks to the standard candle nature of type Ia supernovae. High-spatial-resolution imaging with the Keck telescope resolved four images of the supernova with very small angular separation, corresponding to an Einstein radius of only θ E = 0.167″ and almost identical arrival times. The small θ E and faintness of the lensing galaxy are very unusual, highlighting the importance of supernovae to fully characterize the properties of galaxy-scale gravitational lenses, including the impact of galaxy substructures.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Cosmology; General relativity and gravity; Time-domain astronomy
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy Q Science > QC Physics
Divisions:	Astrophysics Research Institute
Publisher:	Nature Publishing Group
Date of acceptance:	24 April 2023
Date of first compliant Open Access:	3 January 2024
Date Deposited:	03 Jan 2024 16:07
Last Modified:	04 Jul 2025 15:00
DOI or ID number:	10.1038/s41550-023-01981-3
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/22159

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