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The H0LiCOW collaboration inferred via strong gravitational lensing time delays a Hubble constant value of H0 = 73.3−1.8+1.7 H 0 = 73. 3 − 1.8 + 1.7 $ H_0 = 73.3^{+1.7}_{-1.8} $ km s−1 Mpc−1, describing deflector mass density profiles by either a power-law or stars (constant mass-to-light ratio) plus standard dark matter halos. The mass-sheet transform (MST) that leaves the lensing observables unchanged is considered the dominant source of residual uncertainty in H0. We quantify any potential effect of the MST with a flexible family of mass models, which directly encodes it, and they are hence maximally degenerate with H0. Our calculation is based on a new hierarchical Bayesian approach in which the MST is only constrained by stellar kinematics. The approach is validated on mock lenses, which are generated from hydrodynamic simulations. We first applied the inference to the TDCOSMO sample of seven lenses, six of which are from H0LiCOW, and measured H0 = 74.5−6.1+5.6 H 0 = 74. 5 − 6.1 + 5.6 $ H_0 = 74.5^{+5.6}_{-6.1} $ km s−1 Mpc−1. Secondly, in order to further constrain the deflector mass density profiles, we added imaging and spectroscopy for a set of 33 strong gravitational lenses from the Sloan Lens ACS (SLACS) sample. For nine of the 33 SLAC lenses, we used resolved kinematics to constrain the stellar anisotropy. From the joint hierarchical analysis of the TDCOSMO+SLACS sample, we measured H0 = 67.4−3.2+4.1 H 0 = 67. 4 − 3.2 + 4.1 $ H_0 = 67.4^{+4.1}_{-3.2} $ km s−1 Mpc−1. This measurement assumes that the TDCOSMO and SLACS galaxies are drawn from the same parent population. The blind H0LiCOW, TDCOSMO-only and TDCOSMO+SLACS analyses are in mutual statistical agreement. The TDCOSMO+SLACS analysis prefers marginally shallower mass profiles than H0LiCOW or TDCOSMO-only. Without relying on the form of the mass density profile used by H0LiCOW, we achieve a ∼5% measurement of H0. While our new hierarchical analysis does not statistically invalidate the mass profile assumptions by H0LiCOW – and thus the H0 measurement relying on them – it demonstrates the importance of understanding the mass density profile of elliptical galaxies. The uncertainties on H0 derived in this paper can be reduced by physical or observational priors on the form of the mass profile, or by additional data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present new measurements of the time delays of WFI2033−4723. The data sets used in this work include 14 years of data taken at the 1.2 m Leonhard Euler Swiss telescope, 13 years of data from the SMARTS 1.3 m telescope at Las Campanas Observatory and a single year of high-cadence and high-precision monitoring at the MPIA 2.2 m telescope. The time delays measured from these different data sets, all taken in the R-band, are in good agreement with each other and with previous measurements from the literature. Combining all the time-delay estimates from our data sets results in ΔtAB = 36.2+0.7−0.8 Δ t AB = 36. 2 − 0.8 + 0.7 $ \Delta t_{\mathrm{AB}} = 36.2_{-0.8}^{+0.7} $ days (2.1% precision), ΔtAC = −23.3+1.2−1.4 Δ t AC = − 23. 3 − 1.4 + 1.2 $ \Delta t_{\mathrm{AC}} = -23.3_{-1.4}^{+1.2} $ days (5.6%) and ΔtBC = −59.4+1.3−1.3 Δ t BC = − 59. 4 − 1.3 + 1.3 $ \Delta t_{\mathrm{BC}} = -59.4_{-1.3}^{+1.3} $ days (2.2%). In addition, the close image pair A1-A2 of the lensed quasars can be resolved in the MPIA 2.2 m data. We measure a time delay consistent with zero in this pair of images. We also explore the prior distributions of microlensing time-delay potentially affecting the cosmological time-delay measurements of WFI2033−4723. Our time-delay measurements are not precise enough to conclude that microlensing time delay is present or absent from the data. This work is part of a H0LiCOW series focusing on measuring the Hubble constant from WFI2033−4723. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a blind time-delay strong lensing (TDSL) cosmographic analysis of the doubly imaged quasar SDSS 1206+4332 . We combine the relative time delay between the quasar images, Hubble Space Telescope imaging, the Keck stellar velocity dispersion of the lensing galaxy, and wide-field photometric and spectroscopic data of the field to constrain two angular diameter distance relations. The combined analysis is performed by forward modelling the individual data sets through a Bayesian hierarchical framework, and it is kept blind until the very end to prevent experimenter bias. After unblinding, the inferred distances imply a Hubble constant H 0 = 68.8 |$^{+5.4}_{-5.1}$|  km s−1 Mpc−1, assuming a flat Λ cold dark matter cosmology with uniform prior on Ωm in [0.05, 0.5]. The precision of our cosmographic measurement with the doubly imaged quasar SDSS 1206+4332 is comparable with those of quadruply imaged quasars and opens the path to perform on selected doubles the same analysis as anticipated for quads. Our analysis is based on a completely independent lensing code than our previous three H0LiCOW systems and the new measurement is fully consistent with those. We provide the analysis scripts paired with the publicly available software to facilitate independent analysis (footnote with link to www.h0licow.org). The consistency between blind measurements with independent codes provides an important sanity check on lens modelling systematics. By combining the likelihoods of the four systems under the same prior, we obtain H 0 = 72.5 |$^{+2.1}_{-2.3}$|  km s−1 Mpc−1. This measurement is independent of the distance ladder and other cosmological probes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a weak gravitational lensing measurement of the external convergence along the line of sight to the quadruply lensed quasar HE 0435-1223. Using deep r-band images from Subaru Suprime Cam, we observe galaxies down to a 3σ limiting magnitude of -26 mag resulting in a source galaxy density of 14 galaxies per square arcminute after redshift-based cuts. Using an inpainting technique and multiscale entropy filtering algorithm, we find that the region in close proximity to the lens has an estimated external convergence of κ =-0.012+0.020-0.013 and is hence marginally underdense. We also rule out the presence of any halo with a mass greater than Mvir = 1.6 x 1014h-1 M... (68 per cent confidence limit). Our results, consistent with previous studies of this lens, confirm that the intervening mass along the line of sight to HE 0435-1223 does not affect significantly the cosmological results inferred from the time-delay measurements of that specific object. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strong gravitational lens systems with time delays between the multiple images allow measurements of time-delay distances, which are primarily sensitive to the Hubble constant that is key to probing dark energy, neutrino physics and the spatial curvature of the Universe, as well as discovering new physics. We present H0LiCOW (H0 Lenses in COSMOGRAIL's Wellspring), a program that aims to measure H0 with <3.5 per cent uncertainty from five lens systems (B1608+656, RXJ1131-1231, HE 0435-1223, WFI2033-4723 and HE 1104-1805). We have been acquiring (1) time delays through COSMOGRAIL and Very Large Array monitoring, (2) high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope imaging for the lens mass modelling, (3) wide-field imaging and spectroscopy to characterize the lens environment and (4) moderate-resolution spectroscopy to obtain the stellar velocity dispersion of the lenses for mass modelling. In cosmological models with one-parameter extension to flat Λ cold dark matter, we expect to measure H0 to <3.5 per cent in most models, spatial curvature Ωk to 0.004, w to 0.14 and the effective number of neutrino species to 0.2 (1σ uncertainties) when combined with current cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments. These are, respectively, a factor of ~15, ~2 and ~1.5 tighter than CMB alone. Our data set will further enable us to study the stellar initial mass function of the lens galaxies, and the co-evolution of supermassive black holes and their host galaxies. This program will provide a foundation for extracting cosmological distances from the hundreds of time-delay lenses that are expected to be discovered in current and future surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]