CFHT UM2025 - Presentation Details
Abstract Details
Title: Discovering Strong Gravitational Lenses in UNIONS with CFIS
Presenter: Christopher Storfer
Abstract:
Strong gravitational lensing is a rare phenomenon which is capable of addressing prominent, open questions in cosmology and astrophysics. Realizing the scientific potential of strong lensing necessitates the discovery and confirmation of a large, diverse, high-quality sample of systems. In recent years, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have proven to be extraordinarily successful in finding strong lenses in ground-based imaging data. We make use of a CNN to search for strong lenses in UNIONS data which includes the CFIS r-band. In total, we report ~1300 new, high-quality strong lens candidates. These candidates are actively being followed-up spectroscopically. Once observed by Euclid, the combination of high-resolution imaging data and redshift information from spectroscopic follow-up will enable modeling of these systems, opening the door to all varieties of strong lensing science.