_version_ 1866912972221186048
author Khadka, Narayan
Birrer, Simon
Best, Henry
Sharma, Paras
Abe, Katsuya T.
Tang, Xianzhe
Mistick, Carly
Urcelay, Felipe
Sonmez, Emrecan M.
Arendse, Nikki
Erickson, Sydney
Hjortlund, Jacob O.
Holloway, Phil
Huang, Alan
Karthik, Rahul
Lamontagne, Mia
Negi, Vibhore
Pierel, Justin R.
Sanchez, Bruno
Saricaoglu, Aysu Ece
Shajib, Anowar
Shao, Yixuan
Venkatraman, Padma
Wedig, Bryce
Agrawal, Aadya
Anguita, Timo
Bessa, Pedro
Bom, Clecio R.
Castillo, Sofia
Collett, Thomas
Daylan, Tansu
Dillmann, Steven
Grespan, Margherita
Hayes, Erin E.
Joseph, Remy
Kessler, Richard
Li, Tian
Marshall, Phil
More, Anupreeta
Motta, Veronica
Narayan, Gautham
O'Dowd, Matt
Oguri, Masamune
Verma, Aprajita
Vernardos, Giorgos
Collaboration, the Strong Lensing Science
Collaboration, the LSST Dark Energy Science
author_facet Khadka, Narayan
Birrer, Simon
Best, Henry
Sharma, Paras
Abe, Katsuya T.
Tang, Xianzhe
Mistick, Carly
Urcelay, Felipe
Sonmez, Emrecan M.
Arendse, Nikki
Erickson, Sydney
Hjortlund, Jacob O.
Holloway, Phil
Huang, Alan
Karthik, Rahul
Lamontagne, Mia
Negi, Vibhore
Pierel, Justin R.
Sanchez, Bruno
Saricaoglu, Aysu Ece
Shajib, Anowar
Shao, Yixuan
Venkatraman, Padma
Wedig, Bryce
Agrawal, Aadya
Anguita, Timo
Bessa, Pedro
Bom, Clecio R.
Castillo, Sofia
Collett, Thomas
Daylan, Tansu
Dillmann, Steven
Grespan, Margherita
Hayes, Erin E.
Joseph, Remy
Kessler, Richard
Li, Tian
Marshall, Phil
More, Anupreeta
Motta, Veronica
Narayan, Gautham
O'Dowd, Matt
Oguri, Masamune
Verma, Aprajita
Vernardos, Giorgos
Collaboration, the Strong Lensing Science
Collaboration, the LSST Dark Energy Science
contents Gravitational lensing offers unique insights into cosmology by bending light around massive objects. Strong gravitational lensing, in particular, produces magnified and often multiple images of distant sources, crucial for precise cosmological measurements and understanding the distribution of dark matter in the universe. Current studies are limited by the number of strong gravitational lenses. From upcoming cosmological surveys, we anticipate observing a several orders of magnitude increase in the number of lenses, for both static and transient phenomena. However, detecting and analyzing these events from vast surveys like Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) presents significant challenges. To prepare for these challenges, we introduce SLSim, a versatile simulation tool tailored for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. SLSim integrates advanced astrophysical models with computational efficiency to generate synthetic strong lens populations under realistic observational conditions. SLSim simulates static and variable lensing scenarios, essential for cosmological studies, training and testing lens search and data analysis pipelines. This paper details SLSim,'s design and implementation, emphasizing its modularity and capabilities across various astrophysical regimes. Validation against observational data and existing simulations confirms SLSim's accuracy in reproducing observed lensing phenomena. SLSim is publicly available at https://github.com/LSST-strong-lensing/slsim, and we anticipate continued development and expansion of its capabilities. Users are encouraged to check the repository for updates and to contribute to ongoing community efforts in strong lensing simulations.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_17138
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle SLSim: a strong lensing population simulation package
Khadka, Narayan
Birrer, Simon
Best, Henry
Sharma, Paras
Abe, Katsuya T.
Tang, Xianzhe
Mistick, Carly
Urcelay, Felipe
Sonmez, Emrecan M.
Arendse, Nikki
Erickson, Sydney
Hjortlund, Jacob O.
Holloway, Phil
Huang, Alan
Karthik, Rahul
Lamontagne, Mia
Negi, Vibhore
Pierel, Justin R.
Sanchez, Bruno
Saricaoglu, Aysu Ece
Shajib, Anowar
Shao, Yixuan
Venkatraman, Padma
Wedig, Bryce
Agrawal, Aadya
Anguita, Timo
Bessa, Pedro
Bom, Clecio R.
Castillo, Sofia
Collett, Thomas
Daylan, Tansu
Dillmann, Steven
Grespan, Margherita
Hayes, Erin E.
Joseph, Remy
Kessler, Richard
Li, Tian
Marshall, Phil
More, Anupreeta
Motta, Veronica
Narayan, Gautham
O'Dowd, Matt
Oguri, Masamune
Verma, Aprajita
Vernardos, Giorgos
Collaboration, the Strong Lensing Science
Collaboration, the LSST Dark Energy Science
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Gravitational lensing offers unique insights into cosmology by bending light around massive objects. Strong gravitational lensing, in particular, produces magnified and often multiple images of distant sources, crucial for precise cosmological measurements and understanding the distribution of dark matter in the universe. Current studies are limited by the number of strong gravitational lenses. From upcoming cosmological surveys, we anticipate observing a several orders of magnitude increase in the number of lenses, for both static and transient phenomena. However, detecting and analyzing these events from vast surveys like Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) presents significant challenges. To prepare for these challenges, we introduce SLSim, a versatile simulation tool tailored for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. SLSim integrates advanced astrophysical models with computational efficiency to generate synthetic strong lens populations under realistic observational conditions. SLSim simulates static and variable lensing scenarios, essential for cosmological studies, training and testing lens search and data analysis pipelines. This paper details SLSim,'s design and implementation, emphasizing its modularity and capabilities across various astrophysical regimes. Validation against observational data and existing simulations confirms SLSim's accuracy in reproducing observed lensing phenomena. SLSim is publicly available at https://github.com/LSST-strong-lensing/slsim, and we anticipate continued development and expansion of its capabilities. Users are encouraged to check the repository for updates and to contribute to ongoing community efforts in strong lensing simulations.
title SLSim: a strong lensing population simulation package
topic Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.17138