The COSMOS-Web Lens Survey (COWLS) II: Depth, resolution, and NIR coverage from JWST reveals 17 spectacular lenses

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Název: The COSMOS-Web Lens Survey (COWLS) II: Depth, resolution, and NIR coverage from JWST reveals 17 spectacular lenses
Autoři: Guillaume Mahler, James W Nightingale, Natalie B Hogg, Ghassem Gozaliasl, Jacqueline McCleary, Qiuhan He, Edward Berman, Maximilien Franco, Daizhong Liu, Richard J Massey, Wilfried Mercier, Diana Scognamiglio, Marko Shuntov, Maximilian von Wietersheim-Kramsta, Louise Paquereau, Olivier Ilbert, Natalie Allen, Sune Toft, Hollis B Akins, Caitlin M Casey, Jeyhan S Kartaltepe, Anton M Koekemoer, Henry Joy McCracken, Jason D Rhodes, Brant E Robertson, Jorge A Zavala, Nicole E Drakos, Andreas L Faisst, Georgios E Magdis, Shuowen Jin
Přispěvatelé: POTHIER, Nathalie
Zdroj: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters. 544:L8-L14
Publication Status: Preprint
Informace o vydavateli: Oxford University Press (OUP), 2025.
Rok vydání: 2025
Témata: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO), Astrophysics of Galaxies, Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA), FOS: Physical sciences, [PHYS.ASTR] Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph], Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Popis: The COSMOS-Web Lens Survey (COWLS) presents the first systematic search for strong gravitational lenses in the COSMOS-Web field using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Using high-resolution NIRCam imaging, we visually inspected over 42 660 galaxies and identified over 400 lensing candidates. Here, we report the 17 most obvious and spectacular strong lensing systems, distinguished by large Einstein rings, arcs, and distinct lens and source colours. These diverse lenses, identified only through visual inspection of lens-light-subtracted images, represent the extremes of lens parameter space. Exceptionally high signal-to-noise, multiwavelength imaging enables unprecedented lensing analysis, including ‘HST-dark’ source galaxies that are also invisible in deeper but bluer JWST wavebands: enabling clean deblending between the lens and the source. Some sources exhibit dramatic morphological changes across wavelengths, and patterns of dust absorption within lenses. No other current facility, including the Hubble Space Telescope, can discover or image such lenses with comparable detail. We estimate that JWST uncovers a new spectacular lens approximately every 10 to 12 NIRCam pointings, suggesting that over 40 similar lenses remain undiscovered within its first three years of observations. All COWLS data are publicly available on GitHub.
Druh dokumentu: Article
Popis souboru: application/pdf
Jazyk: English
ISSN: 1745-3933
1745-3925
DOI: 10.1093/mnrasl/slaf088
DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2503.08782
Přístupová URL adresa: http://arxiv.org/abs/2503.08782
Rights: CC BY
Přístupové číslo: edsair.doi.dedup.....c49ec471b3f60d33da8ef06448723231
Databáze: OpenAIRE
Popis
Abstrakt:The COSMOS-Web Lens Survey (COWLS) presents the first systematic search for strong gravitational lenses in the COSMOS-Web field using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Using high-resolution NIRCam imaging, we visually inspected over 42 660 galaxies and identified over 400 lensing candidates. Here, we report the 17 most obvious and spectacular strong lensing systems, distinguished by large Einstein rings, arcs, and distinct lens and source colours. These diverse lenses, identified only through visual inspection of lens-light-subtracted images, represent the extremes of lens parameter space. Exceptionally high signal-to-noise, multiwavelength imaging enables unprecedented lensing analysis, including ‘HST-dark’ source galaxies that are also invisible in deeper but bluer JWST wavebands: enabling clean deblending between the lens and the source. Some sources exhibit dramatic morphological changes across wavelengths, and patterns of dust absorption within lenses. No other current facility, including the Hubble Space Telescope, can discover or image such lenses with comparable detail. We estimate that JWST uncovers a new spectacular lens approximately every 10 to 12 NIRCam pointings, suggesting that over 40 similar lenses remain undiscovered within its first three years of observations. All COWLS data are publicly available on GitHub.
ISSN:17453933
17453925
DOI:10.1093/mnrasl/slaf088