activity
20222026
most citedEinstein rings modulated by wavelike dark matter from anomalies in gravitationally lensed images

85 citations · 165 across the 22 of their papers we have counts for

collaborators

23 papers

astro-ph.CO2026

Observing population III stars in the pristine region

Sung Kei Li, Jose M. Diego, Jose M. Palencia

The detection of the long-sought Population III (Pop III) stars is, perhaps, one of the most intriguing missing links in modern astronomy. Caustic crossing events (CCE) -- extreme…

astro-ph.CO2026

Model independent lensing sub-structure detection with multiply-imaged star clusters constellations

Leo W. H. Fung, Tom Broadhurst, Sung Kei Li +3

A broad class of dark matter (DM) models predicts the existence of sub-structures residing in DM haloes on sub-resolvable angular scales. Techniques to extract such a generic featu…

astro-ph.GA2026

Extragalactic microlensing through Ultra Diffuse Galaxies

Sung Kei Li, Thomas Broadhurst, Jose M. Diego +4

Stellar microlensing is a powerful method to constrain compact dark matter models, uncover binary stars, and exoplanets during caustic crossing events. At cosmological distances, {…

astro-ph.CO2026

Massive stars as gravitationally lensed transients -- Insights on the high-mass initial mass function

Sung Kei Li

A robust stellar initial mass function (IMF) is crucial in any studies related to star formation. However, the direct measurement of the stellar IMF is confined to the local univer…

astro-ph.CO2025

Lensed stars in galaxy-galaxy strong lensing -- a JWST prediction for the Cosmic Horseshoe

Sung Kei Li, Luke Weisenbach, Thomas E. Collett +10

We explore for the first time the possibility of detecting lensed star transients in galaxy-galaxy strong lensing systems upon repeated, deep imaging using the {\it James-Webb Spac…

astro-ph.CO2025

Magnification bias reveals severe contamination in Hubble Frontier Field photo-z catalogs

Jiashuo Zhang, Jeremy Lim, Tom Broadhurst +4

Gravitational lensing by massive galaxy clusters enables faint distant galaxies to be more abundantly detected than in blank fields, thereby allowing one to construct galaxy lumino…

astro-ph.CO2025★ 4 cited

Signatures of Fuzzy Dark Matter Inside Radial Critical Curves

J. M. Palencia, Paloma Morilla, Sung Kei Li +5

We investigate the strong gravitational lensing properties of fuzzy dark matter (FDM) halos, focusing on the magnification properties near radial critical curves (CCs). Using simul…

astro-ph.CO2025★ 1 cited

Transient star B/R ratio and star formation in lensed galaxies

Sung Kei Li, Jose M. Palencia, Jose M. Diego +8

The extreme magnification from galaxy clusters and microlenses therein allows the detection of individual, luminous stars in lensed galaxies as transient events, and hence provides…

astro-ph.CO2025

Constraining the z 1 Initial Mass Function with {\it HST} and {\it JWST} Lensed Stars in MACS J0416.1-2403

Sung Kei Li, Jose M. Diego, Ashish K. Meena +19

Our understanding of galaxy properties and evolution is contingent on knowing the initial mass function (IMF), and yet to date, the IMF is constrained only to local galaxies. Indiv…

astro-ph.GA2025★ 5 cited

Flashlights: Prospects for constraining the Initial Mass Function around cosmic noon with caustic-crossing events

Ashish Kumar Meena, Sung Kei Li, Adi Zitrin +7

The Flashlights program with the Hubble Space Telescope imaged the six Hubble Frontier Fields galaxy clusters in two epochs and detected twenty transients. These are primarily expe…

astro-ph.CO2025

Multi-copy Axion Transfer Function and Observational Implications of Effective de Broglie Scales

Jiashuo Zhang, Tom Broadhurst, Jeremy Lim +2

Ultra-light axions are viable fuzzy/wave-like dark matter (DM) candidates generically predicted by the String Axiverse paradigm with multiple particle copies, whereas most of th…

astro-ph.GA2024★ 6 cited

Are Models of Strong Gravitational Lensing by Clusters Converging or Diverging?

Derek Perera, John H Miller, Liliya L. R. Williams +4

The increasingly large numbers of multiple images in cluster-scale gravitational lenses have allowed for tighter constraints on the mass distributions of these systems. Most lens m…

astro-ph.GA2024★ 6 cited

BUFFALO Wild Wings: A High Precision Free-Form Lens Model of MACSJ0416 with Constraints on Dark Matter from Substructure and Highly Magnified Arcs

Derek Perera, Liliya L. R. Williams, Jori Liesenborgs +10

We present new free-form and hybrid mass reconstructions of the galaxy cluster lens MACS J0416.12403 at using the lens inversion method GRALE. The reconstructions use…

astro-ph.CO2024★ 3 cited

A high-resolution view of the source-plane magnification near cluster caustics in wave dark matter models

Jose M. Diego, Alfred Amruth, Jose M. Palencia +10

We present the highest resolution images to date of caustics formed by wave dark matter (DM) fluctuations near the critical curves of cluster gravitational lenses. We describe t…

astro-ph.CO2024★ 1 cited

Dark Matter distinguished by skewed microlensing in the "Dragon Arc"

Tom Broadhurst, Sung Kei Li, Amruth Alfred +18

Microlensed stars recently discovered by JWST & HST follow closely the winding critical curve of A370 along all sections of the ``Dragon Arc" traversed by the critical curve. These…

astro-ph.CO2024★ 19 cited

Imaging dark matter at the smallest scales with lensed stars

J. M. Diego, Sung Kei Li, Alfred Amruth +19

Observations of caustic-crossing galaxies at redshift show a wealth of transient events. Most of them are believed to be microlensing events of highly magnified stars. Ea…

astro-ph.CO2024★ 2 cited

Flashlights: Transients among Gravitationally-Lensed Star Clusters in the Dragon Arc. I. Stellar Microlensing vs Stellar Outbursts

Sung Kei Li, Jose M. Diego, Patrick L. Kelly +8

We report the discovery of transients among star clusters in a distant galaxy that is gravitationally lensed by a foreground galaxy cluster, and explore whether these transients co…

astro-ph.GA2023★ 1 cited

A Lens Finder Map to check claimed High-z Galaxies behind SMACS J0723.3-7327

Alex Chow, Sung Kei Li, Tom Broadhurst +5

The first science image released by the JWST reveals numerous galaxies in the distant background of the galaxy cluster SMACS J0723.3-7327. Some have claimed redshifts of up to $z \…

astro-ph.GA2023★ 3 cited

BUFFALO/Flashlights: Constraints on the abundance of lensed supergiant stars in the Spock galaxy at redshift 1

Jose M. Diego, Sung Kei Li, Ashish K. Meena +27

We present a constraint on the abundance of supergiant (SG) stars at redshift z approx. 1, based on recent observations of a strongly lensed arc at this redshift. First we derive a…

astro-ph.CO2023★ 85 cited

Einstein rings modulated by wavelike dark matter from anomalies in gravitationally lensed images

Alfred Amruth, Tom Broadhurst, Jeremy Lim +10

Unveiling the true nature of Dark Matter (DM), which manifests itself only through gravity, is one of the principal quests in physics. Leading candidates for DM are weakly interact…

astro-ph.CO2023★ 1 cited

Flashlights: Properties of Highly Magnified Images Near Cluster Critical Curves in the Presence of Dark Matter Subhalos

Liliya L. R. Williams, Patrick L. Kelly, Tommaso Treu +7

Dark matter subhalos with extended profiles and density cores, and globular stars clusters of mass , that live near the critical curves in galaxy cluster lenses…

astro-ph.CO2022★ 9 cited

Flashlights: More than A Dozen High-Significance Microlensing Events of Extremely Magnified Stars in Galaxies at Redshifts z=0.7-1.5

Patrick L. Kelly, Wenlei Chen, Amruth Alfred +23

Once only accessible in nearby galaxies, we can now study individual stars across much of the observable universe aided by galaxy-cluster gravitational lenses. When a star, compact…

astro-ph.CO2022★ 19 cited

Flashlights: An Off-Caustic Lensed Star at Redshift = 1.26 in Abell 370

Ashish Kumar Meena, Wenlei Chen, Adi Zitrin +10

We report the discovery of a transient seen in a strongly lensed arc at redshift in \emph{Hubble Space Telescope} imaging of the Abell 370 galaxy cluster. The tr…