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Title: TDCOSMO: XII. Improved Hubble constant measurement from lensing time delays using spatially resolved stellar kinematics of the lens galaxy

Journal Article · · Astronomy and Astrophysics
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4];  [3]; ORCiD logo [5]; ORCiD logo [6];  [7]; ORCiD logo [8]; ORCiD logo [9]; ORCiD logo [10]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3];  [3]
  1. Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States)
  2. Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)
  3. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
  4. Univ. of Oxford (United Kingdom)
  5. Technical Univ. of Munich (Germany); Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (Germany); Academia Sinica, Taipei (Taiwan)
  6. California Polytechnic State Univ. (CalPoly), San Luis Obispo, CA (United States)
  7. Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States); Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
  8. STAR Institute, Liege (Belgium)
  9. Stanford Univ., CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Stony Brook Univ., NY (United States)
  10. Ecole Polytechnique Federale Lausanne (EPFL) (Switzerland)

Strong-lensing time delays enable the measurement of the Hubble constant (H0) independently of other traditional methods. The main limitation to the precision of time-delay cosmography is mass-sheet degeneracy (MSD). Some of the previous TDCOSMO analyses broke the MSD by making standard assumptions about the mass density profile of the lens galaxy, reaching 2% precision from seven lenses. However, this approach could potentially bias the H0 measurement or underestimate the errors. For this work, we broke the MSD for the first time using spatially resolved kinematics of the lens galaxy in RXJ1131–1231 obtained from the Keck Cosmic Web Imager spectroscopy, in combination with previously published time delay and lens models derived from Hubble Space Telescope imaging. This approach allowed us to robustly estimate H0, effectively implementing a maximally flexible mass model. Following a blind analysis, we estimated the angular diameter distance to the lens galaxy Dd = 865$$^{+85}_{-81}$$ Mpc and the time-delay distance DΔt = 2180$$^{+472}_{-271}$$ Mpc, giving H0 = 77.1$$^{+7.3}_{-7.1}$$ km s–1 Mpc–1 – for a flat Λ cold dark matter cosmology. The error budget accounts for all uncertainties, including the MSD inherent to the lens mass profile and line-of-sight effects, and those related to the mass–anisotropy degeneracy and projection effects. Our new measurement is in excellent agreement with those obtained in the past using standard simply parametrized mass profiles for this single system (H0 = 78.3$$^{+3.4}_{-3.3}$$ km s–1 Mpc–1) and for seven lenses (H0 = 74.2$$^{+1.6}_{-1.6}$$ km s–1 Mpc–1), or for seven lenses using single-aperture kinematics and the same maximally flexible models used by us (H0 = 73.3$$^{+5.8}_{-5.8}$$ km s–1 Mpc–1). This agreement corroborates the methodology of time-delay cosmography.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States); Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); National Science Foundation (NSF); Moore Foundation
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-07CH11359; HST-HF2-51492; NAS5-26555; AST-1906976; AST-1836016; AST-1907396; AST-1909297; 8548
OSTI ID:
1909867
Report Number(s):
FERMILAB-PUB-23-013-PPD; arXiv:2301.02656; oai:inspirehep.net:2621298; TRN: US2312179
Journal Information:
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Vol. 673; ISSN 0004-6361
Publisher:
EDP SciencesCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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