2013 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
重力レンズ効果を用いた銀河群領域の暗黒物質分布の探求
| Project/Area Number |
12F02322
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| Research Institution | The University of Tokyo |
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
MORE Anupreeta 東京大学, カブリ数物連携宇宙研究機構, 特任研究員 (10753759)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
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| Keywords | Exciting / Satisfactory / million classifications / 50k people collaborating |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
We launched a citizen science project called Space Warps (SW, spacewarps.org) to find gravitational lenses which are complex, rare but have diverse applications. I worked on generating large samples of training images such as simulated lenses which are shown to the volunteers in order to train them to identify lenses. The funds I received were extremely useful in acquiring fast computing resources required to process large amount of data (～2TB). I led the first lens search to find lenses that robotic algorithms failed to discover. We received about 11 million classifications from ～37,000 volunteers who inspected ～ 430,000 images in 8 months. After finishing the first search, we soon began work on a second lens search which was conducted live on "Stargazing Live" on BBC hosted by Brian Cox. This project lasted for 3 days and produced record breaking classification rates. Telescope follow up of interesting candidates from both searches has begun along with mass modelling analyses.
We are exploring the properties of groups scale lens candidates from More et al. (2012) e.g. the luminosity and mass distributions and comparing scaling relations such as mass-richness with other samples in the literature to understand how different groups are compared to the more massive clusters. We found an intriguing lens in our sample wherein the distribution of gas (seen in X-rays) is offset from the mass component deduced from lensing. This is the smallest mass system found to show dark matter - baryon separation which puts an upper limit on the interaction cross-section of dark matter.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
The SW project was launched and running successfully. This generated a lot of interest both in the astronomy and wider lay community. This project has a legacy value and will be very useful for astronomers to achieve goals that are not possible within their small community and beneficial for the lay citizens as they can partake in the process of doing real science and contribute to the overall scientific progress. Projects like these also serve as a great platform for young minds to educate and train themselves in developing scientific temper and pursuing scientific careers.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
The plans are to process all the classifications received from volunteers for the first lens search, present the newly discovered lenses and to understand how well human beings perform compared to robotic lens searches. Furthermore, newly discovered systems will be followed up with telescopes to confirm lensing and better understand the systems combined with mass modelling. An exciting lens candidate is discovered from the second lens search aired on BBC, I will be working on making a model for the mass distribution of the lens system. We plan to develop better tools for the citizen scientists in SW and enable mass modelling of the lens candidates.
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[Journal Article] Extraordinary Magnification of the Ordinary Type Ia Supernova PS1-10afx2013
Author(s)
Robert M. Quimby, Marcus C. Werner, Masamune Oguri, Surhud More, Anupreeta More, Masayuki Tanaka, Ken'ichi Nomoto, Takashi J. Moriya, Gaston Folatelli, Keiichi Maeda, Melina Bersten
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Journal Title
The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Volume: 768
Pages: L20
DOI
Peer Reviewed / Open Access / Acknowledgement Compliant
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