Article (Scientific journals)
The COSMOS-Web Lens Survey (COWLS) I: discovery of >100 high redshift strong lenses in contiguous JWST imaging
Nightingale, James W.; Mahler, Guillaume; McCleary, Jacqueline et al.
2025 • In Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 543 (1), p. 203 - 222
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Keywords :
astroparticle physics; dark matter; gravitational lensing: strong; Astroparticle physics; Dark matter; Gravitational lensing: strong; High-redshift; James Webb space telescope; Lens model; Red shift; Visual inspection; Wavebands; Web surveys; Astronomy and Astrophysics; Space and Planetary Science; astro-ph.GA; astro-ph.CO
Abstract :
[en] We present the COSMOS-Web Lens Survey (COWLS), a sample of over 100 strong lens candidates from the 0.54deg2 COSMOS-Web survey, discovered using exquisite James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) imaging across four wavebands. Following two rounds of visual inspection, over 100 candidates were ranked as ‘high confidence’ or ‘likely’ by at least 50 percent of inspectors. The COWLS sample has several notable properties: (i) magnified source galaxies spanning redshifts z ∼ 0.1 to z ∼ 9, which therefore extend into the epoch of reionization; (ii) the highest-redshift lens galaxies known, pushing galaxy density profile evolution studies beyond z ∼ 2; (iii) all lenses are distributed within a contiguous 0.54deg2 region, allowing for joint strong and weak lensing analyses; and (iv) a subset exhibits lensed source emission ray-traced near the lens galaxy centres, enabling studies of supermassive black holes and dust absorption. A key innovation of our approach is the use of lens modelling to aid in identifying lenses that may otherwise be missed. This paper is accompanied by the first COWLS public release, providing JWST NIRCam imaging in four bands, lens models, pixelized source reconstructions and lens redshift estimates.
Disciplines :
Space science, astronomy & astrophysics
Author, co-author :
Nightingale, James W. ;  School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, United Kingdom
Mahler, Guillaume  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'astrophysique, géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Multi-wavelength Extragalactic and Galactic Astrophysics (MEGA) ; STAR Institute, Liège, Belgium ; Department of Physics, Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom ; Department of Physics, Institute for Computational Cosmology, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
McCleary, Jacqueline;  Department of Physics, Northeastern University, Boston, United States
He, Qiuhan ;  Department of Physics, Institute for Computational Cosmology, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
Hogg, Natalie B. ;  Laboratoire Univers et Particules de Montpellier, CNRS, Université, Montpellier, France
Amvrosiadis, Aristeidis ;  Department of Physics, Institute for Computational Cosmology, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
Gozaliasl, Ghassem;  Department of Computer Science, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland ; Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Mercier, Wilfried;  Laboratoire d’astrophysique de Marseille, Aix Marseille University, CNRS, CNES, Marseille, France
Scognamiglio, Diana;  Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States
Berman, Edward;  Department of Physics, Northeastern University, Boston, United States
Leroy, Gavin;  Department of Physics, Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom ; Department of Physics, Institute for Computational Cosmology, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
Liu, Daizhong ;  Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China
Massey, Richard J. ;  Department of Physics, Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom ; Department of Physics, Institute for Computational Cosmology, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
Shuntov, Marko;  Cosmic Dawn Centre (DAWN), Kongens Lyngby, Denmark ; Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Von Wietersheim-Kramsta, Maximilian;  Department of Physics, Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom ; Department of Physics, Institute for Computational Cosmology, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
Franco, Maximilien;  Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States
Paquereau, Louise;  Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, UMR 7095, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
Ilbert, Olivier;  Laboratoire d’astrophysique de Marseille, Aix Marseille University, CNRS, CNES, Marseille, France
Allen, Natalie;  Cosmic Dawn Centre (DAWN), Kongens Lyngby, Denmark ; Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Toft, Sune;  Cosmic Dawn Centre (DAWN), Kongens Lyngby, Denmark ; Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Akins, Hollis B.;  Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States
Casey, Caitlin M.;  Cosmic Dawn Centre (DAWN), Kongens Lyngby, Denmark ; Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States ; University of California, Department of Phyiscs, Santa Barbara, United States
Kartaltepe, Jeyhan S.;  Laboratory for Multiwavelength Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, United States
Koekemoer, Anton M. ;  Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, United States
McCracken, Henry Joy;  Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, UMR 7095, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
Rhodes, Jason D.;  Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States
Robertson, Brant E.;  Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, United States
Drakos, Nicole E.;  Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Hawaii, Hilo, United States
Faisst, Andreas L.;  Caltech/IPAC, Pasadena, United States
Jin, Shuowen;  Cosmic Dawn Centre (DAWN), Kongens Lyngby, Denmark ; DTU-Space, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
More authors (20 more) Less
Language :
English
Title :
The COSMOS-Web Lens Survey (COWLS) I: discovery of >100 high redshift strong lenses in contiguous JWST imaging
Publication date :
October 2025
Journal title :
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
ISSN :
0035-8711
eISSN :
1365-2966
Publisher :
Oxford University Press
Volume :
543
Issue :
1
Pages :
203 - 222
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
Funders :
STFC - Science and Technology Facilities Council
DNRF - Danish National Research Foundation
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
CIT - California Institute of Technology
NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Funding text :
JWN is supported by an STFC/UKRI Ernest Rutherford Fellowship, Project Reference: ST/X003086/1. AA and QH acknowledge support from the European Research Council (ERC) through Advanced Investigator grant DMIDAS (GA 786910). GM, MvW-K, and RM were supported in Durham by STFC via grant ST/X001075/1, and the UK Space Agency via grant ST/X001997/1.This work used both the Cambridge Service for Data Driven Discovery (CSD3) and the DiRAC Data-Centric system, project code dp195, which are operated by the University of Cambridge and Durham University on behalf of the STFC DiRAC HPC Facility (www.dirac.ac.uk). These were funded by BIS capital grant ST/K00042X/1, STFC capital grants ST/P002307/1, ST/R002452/1, ST/H008519/1, ST/K00087X/1, STFC Operations grants ST/K003267/1, ST/K003267/1, and Durham University. DiRAC is part of the UK National E-Infrastructure.This work was made possible by utilizing the CANDIDE cluster at the Institut d\u2019Astrophysique de Paris. The cluster was funded through grants from the PNCG, CNES, DIM-ACAV, the Euclid Consortium, and the Danish National Research Foundation Cosmic Dawn Center (DNRF140). It is maintained by Stephane Rouberol. The French contingent of the COSMOS team is partly supported by the Centre National d\u2019Etudes Spatiales (CNES). OI acknowledges the funding of the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche for the project iMAGE (grant ANR-22-CE31-0007). DS acknowledge the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NM0018D0004).This work was made possible by utilizing the CANDIDE cluster at the Institut d\u2019Astrophysique de Paris. The cluster was funded through grants from the PNCG, CNES, DIM-ACAV, the Euclid Consortium, and the Danish National Research Foundation Cosmic Dawn Center (DNRF140). It is maintained by Stephane Rouberol. The French contingent of the COSMOS team is partly supported by the Centre National d\u2019Etudes Spatiales (CNES). OI acknowledges the funding of the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche for the project iMAGE (grant ANR-22-CE31-0007). DS acknowledge the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NM0018D0004).This work used both the Cambridge Service for Data Driven Discovery (CSD3) and the DiRAC Data-Centric system, project code dp195, which are operated by the University of Cambridge and Durham University on behalf of the STFC DiRAC HPC Facility ( www.dirac.ac.uk ). These were funded by BIS capital grant ST/K00042X/1, STFC capital grants ST/P002307/1, ST/R002452/1, ST/H008519/1, ST/K00087X/1, STFC Operations grants ST/K003267/1, ST/K003267/1, and Durham University. DiRAC is part of the UK National E-Infrastructure.JWN is supported by an STFC/UKRI Ernest Rutherford Fellowship, Project Reference: ST/X003086/1. AA and QH acknowledge support from the European Research Council (ERC) through Advanced Investigator grant DMIDAS (GA 786910). GM, MvW-K, and RM were supported in Durham by STFC via grant ST/X001075/1, and the UK Space Agency via grant ST/X001997/1.
Commentary :
32 pages, 15 figures, published in MNRAS, Full data release: https://github.com/Jammy2211/COWLS_COSMOS_Web_Lens_Survey
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