PyAutoLens: Open-Source Strong Gravitational Lensing

The Journal of Open Source Software, vol. 6, pp. 2825

Abstract

Strong gravitational lensing, which can make a background source galaxy appears multiple times due to its light rays being deflected by the mass of one or more foreground lens galaxies, provides astronomers with a powerful tool to study dark matter, cosmology and the most distant Universe.PyAutoLens is an open-source Python 3.6+ package for strong gravitational lensing, with core features including fully automated strong lens modeling of galaxies and galaxy clusters, support for direct imaging and interferometer datasets and comprehensive tools for simulating samples of strong lenses.The API allows users to perform ray-tracing by using analytic light and mass profiles to build strong lens systems.Accompanying PyAutoLens is the autolens workspace, which includes example scripts, lens datasets and the HowToLens lectures in Jupyter notebook format which introduce non-experts to strong lensing using PyAutoLens.Readers can try PyAutoLens right now by going to the introduction Jupyter notebook on Binder or checkout the readthedocs for a complete overview of PyAutoLens's features.

Authors 16

1. James W Nightingale
   Affiliation as printed

   Institute for Computational Cosmology, Stockton Rd, Durham DH1 3LE

2. Ashley J. Kelly
   Affiliation as printed

   Institute for Computational Cosmology , Stockton Rd , Durham DH1 3LE

   Institute for Computational Cosmology, Stockton Rd, Durham DH1 3LE

3. Aristeidis Amvrosiadis
   Affiliation as printed

   Institute for Computational Cosmology , Stockton Rd , Durham DH1 3LE

   Institute for Computational Cosmology, Stockton Rd, Durham DH1 3LE

4. Amy Etherington
   Affiliation as printed

   Institute for Computational Cosmology , Stockton Rd , Durham DH1 3LE

   Institute for Computational Cosmology, Stockton Rd, Durham DH1 3LE

5. Qiuhan He
   Affiliation as printed

   Institute for Computational Cosmology , Stockton Rd , Durham DH1 3LE

6. Nan Li

   Chinese Academy of Sciences · National Astronomical Observatories

   Affiliation as printed

   Key Laboratory of Space Astronomy and Technology , National Astronomical Observatories , Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100101 , China

   Institute for Computational Cosmology, Stockton Rd, Durham DH1 3LE

   Key Laboratory of Space Astronomy and Technology, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

7. Xiaoyue Cao

   Chinese Academy of Sciences · National Astronomical Observatories

   Affiliation as printed

   National Astronomical Observatories , Chinese Academy of Sciences , 20A Datun Road , Chaoyang District , Beijing 100012 , China

   National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 20A Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100012, China

8. Jonathan Frawley

   Durham University

   Affiliation as printed

   Advanced Research Computing , Durham University , Durham DH1 3LE

   Advanced Research Computing, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE

9. S. Cole
   Affiliation as printed

   Institute for Computational Cosmology , Stockton Rd , Durham DH1 3LE

   Institute for Computational Cosmology, Stockton Rd, Durham DH1 3LE

10. A Enia

    University of Bologna

    Affiliation as printed

    Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia , Università degli Studi di Bologna , Via Berti Pichat 6/2 , I-40127 Bologna , Italy

    Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università degli Studi di Bologna, Via Berti Pichat 6/2, I-40127 Bologna, Italy

11. Carlos Silvestre Frenk
    Affiliation as printed

    Institute for Computational Cosmology , Stockton Rd , Durham DH1 3LE

    Institute for Computational Cosmology, Stockton Rd, Durham DH1 3LE

12. David Harvey Aachen Lorentz Institute

    Leiden University

    Affiliation as printed

    Lorentz Institute , Leiden University , Niels Bohrweg 2 , Leiden , NL-2333 CA , The Netherlands

    Lorentz Institute, Leiden University, Niels Bohrweg 2, Leiden, NL-2333 CA, The Netherlands

13. Ran Li

    Chinese Academy of Sciences · National Astronomical Observatories

    Affiliation as printed

    National Astronomical Observatories , Chinese Academy of Sciences , 20A Datun Road , Chaoyang District , Beijing 100012 , China

    National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 20A Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100012, China

14. R. Massey
    Affiliation as printed

    Institute for Computational Cosmology , Stockton Rd , Durham DH1 3LE

    Institute for Computational Cosmology, Stockton Rd, Durham DH1 3LE

15. Mattia Negrello

    Cardiff University

    Affiliation as printed

    School of Physics and Astronomy , Cardiff University , The Parade , Cardiff CF24 3AA , UK

    School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, The Parade, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK

16. Andrew Robertson
    Affiliation as printed

    Institute for Computational Cosmology , Stockton Rd , Durham DH1 3LE

    Institute for Computational Cosmology, Stockton Rd, Durham DH1 3LE