KICP workshop: "Lensing at different scales: strong, weak, and synergies between the two" | Program

Program

July 31 - August 4, 2023

July 31, 2023 - Monday

8:30 AM - 9:00 AM	Badge pickup ERC 401
9:00 AM - 9:30 AM	Welcome and logisticsERC 401Welcome address: Josh Frieman Logistics overview: Anowar Shajib
9:30 AM - 10:30 AM	Morning session 1: SL cosmology reviewSpeaker: Martin MillonERC 401Chair: Anowar Shajib 30 minutes talk, 30 minutes Q&A and discussion This session aims at bringing everyone on the same page at the start of the workshop. It is particularly aimed at weak lensers who may know little about strong lensing, and particularly about how you obtain cosmology with strong lensing, especially from time delays. The talk could include an introduction to strong lensing observables and data. The talk could cover the latest cosmological results from current strong lensing data and highlight the current challenges that can be overcome in the future with data from current/next-generation facilities and in combination with weak lensing. The complementarity of strong lensing likelihoods with other probes, including that from weak lensing, can also be emphasized. The review talk is encouraged to have a good level of interactiveness (such as inviting/allowing questions from the participants during the talk) to get the participants in the mood for discussion. It could be the starting point to prompt questions and discussion from the participants on how we have been doing strong lensing cosmology, what are its current main limitations and how we can overcome them in the future.
10:30 AM - 11:00 AM	Coffee break
11:00 AM - 12:00 AM	Morning session 2: WL cosmology reviewSpeaker: Scott DodelsonERC 401Chair: Judit Prat 30 minutes talk, 30 minutes Q&A and discussion This session aims at bringing everyone on the same page at the start of the workshop. It is particularly aimed at strong lensers who may know little about weak lensing, and particularly about how you obtain cosmology with weak lensing. The talk in this session could cover the latest cosmological results from current weak lensing surveys and briefly introduce future perspectives with upcoming surveys. It could be the starting point to prompt questions and discussion from the participants on how we have been doing weak lensing cosmology, what are its current main limitations and how we can overcome them in the future. The review talk is encouraged to have a good level of interactiveness (such as inviting/allowing questions from the participants during the talk) to get the participants in the mood for discussion. It could be the starting point to prompt questions and discussion from the participants on how we have been doing weak lensing cosmology, what are its current main limitations and how we can overcome them in the future.
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM	Lunch break
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM	Afternoon session 1: Cosmology synergiesSpeakers: Judit Prat, Natalie HoggERC 401Chair: Simon Birrer Each talk is 20 minutes with 10 minutes of Q&A. This session aims to explore the synergistic potential between strong lensing (SL) and weak lensing (WL) techniques in the field of cosmology. The speakers could include a brief review of the past works in this area from the literature and also possibly introduce their own work in this area if suitable. The talks could highlight the complementarity between SL and WL, showcasing the latest advancements and breakthroughs achieved through their joint analysis. The session could serve as a platform to discuss the mutual benefits of integrating SL and WL data, addressing challenges, and exploring future avenues for collaborative research. Participants could be encouraged to engage in discussions, share insights, and envision novel strategies for maximizing the scientific potential of the SL-WL synergy in cosmology.
2:30 PM - 3:00 PM	Coffee Break
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM	Afternoon session 2: Contributed talksSpeakers: Patrick Wells, Carlo Giocoli, Supranta Sarma BoruahERC 401Chair: Giulia Giannini 3 contributed talks (10 minutes each with 5 minutes of Q&A) - Patrick Wells: Computational Strategies for Population-Level Lensing Studies in Next-Generation Astronomical Surveys. - Carlo Giocoli: Mass biases of galaxy clusters in the Euclid era. - Supranta Sarma Boruah: Bayesian field-level inference with weak lensing data. Poster spotlight talks (15 minutes total)
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM	Afternoon session 3: Open discussionChair: Giulia Giannini & Simon BirrerERC 401
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM	Reception and poster session ERC 501

August 1, 2023 - Tuesday

9:30 AM - 10:30 AM	Morning session 1: WL extragalactic reviewSpeaker: Alexie LeauthaudERC 401Chair: Chihway Chang 30 minutes talk, 30 minutes Q&A and discussion The goal of this session is to provide a review of weak lensing applications in studying dark halo properties and the galaxy-halo connection. The talk could be aimed at strong lensers by introducing how weak lensing observables are being used to constrain halo properties. Since this would be the second day of the workshop, an introduction to basic formalism/observables of weak lensing may not be necessary since we will already have covered them in the WL cosmology review session. The talk could highlight the outstanding challenges in this topic and potentially provide areas that can have complementarity to combine strong lensing to overcome them. The review talk is encouraged to have a good level of interactiveness (such as inviting/allowing questions from the participants during the talk) to get the participants in the mood for discussion. It could be the starting point to prompt questions and discussion from the participants on how we have been studying galaxy-halo connection with weak lensing, what are its current main limitations and how we can overcome them in the future.
10:30 AM - 11:00 AM	Coffee Break
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM	Morning session 2: SL extragalactic reviewSpeaker: Giulia DespaliERC 401Chair: Liliya Williams 30 minutes talk, 30 minutes Q&A and discussion The goal of this session is to provide a review of the applications of strong lensing in studying galaxy evolution (i.e., non-linear structure formation). The talk could be aimed at weak lensers and introduce the main observables from strong lensing that allow one to constrain the structural properties in galaxies, for example, the mass distribution and stellar IMF, and highlight what key questions strong lensing is aiming to solve. Since this talk would be on the second day, an introduction to the basic formalism of strong lensing would not be necessary since it will already have been covered in the first SL review talk. The talk could highlight the outstanding challenges in this topic and potentially provide areas that can have complementarity to combine weak lensing to overcome them. The review talk is encouraged to have a good level of interactiveness (such as inviting/allowing questions from the participants during the talk) to get the participants in the mood for discussion. It could be the starting point to prompt questions and discussion from the participants on how we have been studying galaxy evolution with strong lensing, what are its current main limitations and how we can overcome them in the future.
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM	Lunch break
1:30 PM - 2:30 AM	Afternoon session 1: Extragalactic synergiesSpeakers: Alessandro Sonnenfeld, Keiichi UmetsuERC 401Chair: Johannes Lange Each talk is 20 minutes with 10 minutes of Q&A. This session aims to explore the synergistic potential between strong lensing (SL) and weak lensing (WL) techniques in the field of galaxy evolution and non-linear structure formation. The speakers could include a brief review of the past works in this area from the literature and also possibly introduce their own work in this area if suitable. The talks could highlight the complementarity between SL and WL, showcasing the latest advancements and breakthroughs achieved through their joint analysis. The session could serve as a platform to discuss the mutual benefits of integrating SL and WL data, addressing challenges, and exploring future avenues for collaborative research. Participants could be encouraged to engage in discussions, share insights, and envision novel strategies for maximizing the scientific potential of the SL-WL synergy in galaxy evolution and non-linear structure formation.
2:30 PM - 3:00 PM	Coffee break
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM	Afternoon session 2: Contributed talksSpeakers: Chin Yi Tan, Birendra Dhanasingham, Zhuowen Zhang, Peter TaylorERC 401Chair: Daniel Gilman 4 contributed talks (10 minutes each with 5 minutes of Q&A) - Chin Yi Tan: Testing the bulge-halo conspiracy using a joint lensing-dynamics analysis of the largest galaxy-galaxy strong lens sample - Birendra Dhanasingham: Using strong lensing anisotropies to investigate the distribution and evolution of dark matter - Zhuowen Zhang: Correlation of cluster observables between strong lenses and richness - Peter Taylor: Weak Lensing: Optimal Separation of Scales
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM	Afternoon session 3: Open discussionChair: Daniel Gilman & Johannes LangeERC 401
6:15 PM - 8:00 PM	Workshop dinner ERC 161

August 2, 2023 - Wednesday

10:00 AM - 10:30 AM	Coffee break
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM	Morning session 1: Methods/ML for WLSpeaker: Francois LanusseERC 401Chair: Alex Alarcon 30 minutes talk, 30 minutes Q&A and discussion The goal of this session is to review how machine learning is currently being used for weak lensing research. This talk would be on the third day of the workshop, thus the participants would have already been familiar with the basic formalism of strong and weak lensing. The talk could describe the types of problems that benefit most from the application of machine learning methods, either because the problems are intractable through traditional analysis techniques or because machine learning significantly accelerates the computation time. By highlighting how machine learning can help resolve certain challenges in weak lensing research, this session can also promote discussion on how similar methods can be applied to strong-lensing-related applications. The review talk is encouraged to have a good level of interactiveness (such as inviting/allowing questions from the participants during the talk) to get the participants in the mood for discussion. It could be the starting point to prompt questions and discussion from the participants on how we have been using machine learning for weak lensing, what are its current main limitations, and how we can find synergistic avenues with strong lensing applications.
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM	Lunch break
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM	Afternoon session 1: Methods/ML for SLSpeaker: Laurence Perreault LevasseurERC 401Chair: Josh Frieman 30 minutes talk, 30 minutes Q&A and discussion The goal of this session is to review how machine learning is currently being used for strong lensing research. This talk would be on the third day of the workshop, thus the participants would have already been familiar with the basic formalism of strong and weak lensing. The talk could describe the types of problems that benefit most from the application of machine learning methods, either because the problems are intractable through traditional analysis techniques or because machine learning significantly accelerates the computation time. By highlighting how machine learning can help resolve certain challenges in strong lensing research, this session can also promote discussion on how similar methods can be applied to weak-lensing-related applications. The review talk is encouraged to have a good level of interactiveness (such as inviting/allowing questions from the participants during the talk) to get the participants in the mood for discussion. It could be the starting point to prompt questions and discussion from the participants on how we have been using machine learning for strong lensing, what are its current main limitations, and how we can find synergistic avenues with weak lensing applications.
2:00 PM - 2:30 PM	Coffee break
2:30 PM - 3:15 PM	Afternoon session 2: Contributed talksSpeakers: Sihao Cheng, Gemma Zhang, Arthur TsangERC 401Chair: Daniel Gilman 3 contributed talks (10 minutes each with 5 minutes of Q&A): - Sihao Cheng: Interpretable machine learning for weak lensing data. - Gemma Zhang: Subhalo effective density slopes from strong lensing data with neural likelihood-ratio estimation. - Arthur Tsang: Machine Learning for Subhalo Detection in Realistic Galaxy-Galaxy Lensing Systems.
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM	Afternoon session 3: Breakout groups

August 3, 2023 - Thursday

9:30 AM - 10:30 AM	Morning session 1: Synergies with other probes: Lensed SN, Gravitational Waves Lensing, and CMB LensingSpeakers: Yuuki Omori, Jose Ezquiaga, Nikki ArendseERC 401Chair: Alex Alarcon The session is to discuss synergies of strong and/or weak lensing with other emerging lensing probes of cosmology and/or galaxy evolution. This session would be on the fourth day of the workshop. The speakers would provide a review of the past works in the literature and/or present their own work regarding combining these emerging probes with “traditional” strong and weak lensing probes.
10:30 AM - 11:00 AM	Coffee break
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM	Morning session 2: The future of SL and WL: Roman, Euclid, and Rubin ObservatoriesSpeakers: Michael Troxel, Alex Hall, Tilman TroesterERC 401.Chair: Giulia Giannini This session aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the future prospects of both strong and weak lensing in the context of the upcoming surveys: Roman, Euclid, and Vera Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey for Space and Time (LSST). The talks are designed to engage both weak and strong lensing researchers and to highlight the immense potential of these surveys for advancing both fields. The session will cover the current state of the surveys, the latest advancements, and future plans, with a particular focus on showcasing the unique capabilities of each survey. The talks will serve as the starting point to ignite discussions about the future directions of strong and weak lensing research, address the current limitations, and explore strategies to overcome them.
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM	Lunch break
1:00 PM - 4:00 PM	Afternoon session: Breakout groups
2:30 PM - 3:00 PM	Coffee break
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM	Optional Seminar: The Climate and Biodiversity CrisesSpeaker: Alexie LeauthaudLocation: ERC 401 (Open for everyone from UChicago/KICP) Zoom: https://uchicago.zoom.us/j/96786369992?pwd=V2pIWm9jdUwxTVlhcXV0Q1g1aTI3QT09Chair: Chihway Chang Abstract: In this talk, I will give a high level overview of the climate and biodiversity crises. This in an introductory level talk aimed at an audience of physicists and astrophysicists and is accessible to students and faculty alike. I will cover key vocabulary and figures from the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) AR6 Synthesis report. My goal is for you to come away with a broad understanding of the most recent findings of the IPCC and to give you the foundations needed to read this document on your own. If there is significant interest, I can organize a follow-up zoom based guided reading of the IPCC synthesis report. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-cycle/

August 4, 2023 - Friday

9:30 AM - 11:30 AM	Wrap-up sessionSummary talk: Pierre Fleury (30 minutes)ERC 401Chair: Judit Prat & Anowar Shajib Summary talk (30 minutes) Short presentations from breakout groups (30 minutes) Open discussion (1 hour)
1:30 PM - 5:00 PM	Optional breakouts