The combination of strong gravitational lensing and supernovae tests the cosmic

distance duality relation

Name11 and Name21
1
College of Sciences, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China
(Dated: May 20, 2023)
The cosmic distance duality relation between the luminosity distance DL and the angular diameter
distance DA is one of the most fundamental and crucial formulae in cosmology, and Supernova Ia
are deemed to be standard candles in the universe. In this paper, we use the Gaussian process
to reconstruct the smoothed luminosity distance from the Pantheon type Ia supernovae samples.
Meanwhile, We also utilize the seven sets of strong gravitational lensing data from H0LiCOW,
combined with the fitting curve results of SNe Ia, to constrain the parameter η0 . We employ
parameterization and MCMC methods to perform variance tests in order to test the correctness of
the cosmic distance duality relation.

I. INTRODUCTION Supernova explosions are considered as a means of

testing the CDDR. Supernova explosions release a huge
In 1933, Etherington came up with the cosmic distance amount of energy in a short period, and this energy has
duality relation[1] (CDDR) connecting the observed lu- a relatively stable brightness feature. Therefore, they
minosity distance DL and angular diameter distance DA can be regarded as standard candles in the universe,
at the same redshift z, providing a reference standard for measuring distances.
By observing the brightness (such as the apparent
−1
DL DA magnitude) of supernovae and comparing them with
= 1. (1) the known distances of other supernovae, the distances
(1 + z)2
of unknown supernovae can be calculated. Although
It is based on two fundamental hypotheses, different types of supernovae have differences, overall,
they have sufficient similarity and repeatability to
1. The light travels always along null geodesics in the be used as important tools of cosmological distance
Riemannian geometry[2, 4]; measurement and provide a means of studying many
2. The number of photons is conserved[3]. cosmological issues such as dark energy.

The CDDR is always used for exploring the accelerating
expansion of the late universe, which is important for
observational cosmology, especially in galaxy observing,
CMB observing and gravitational lensing, etc. While it
is possible that one of the above two hypotheses would
be violated, which is the signal of new physics [4, 5], so
testing the CDDR through astronomical observations is
worthy and necessary.
Several tests have been proposed in recent years,
through inducing a parameter η(z) relying on redshift,
which can deform CDDR into[6]
−1
DL DA
= η(z).
(1 + z)2
Some people attempted to constrain the CDDR with
gravitational waves and strong gravitational lensing
(SGL), through observed gravitational waves data and
observations of SNe Ia [7–12].
In this paper, we try to combine SGL and SNe Ia aim-
ing to test the CDDR by using 1048 Pantheon SNe Ia
samples together with results from seven strong gravi-
tational lenses. In Sec. II, we introduce the time de-
lay effect of strong gravitational lensing and the com-
monly used physical quantity, time delay distance. In
Sec. III, based on the 1048 supernova data from the Pan-
theon survey, we introduce the concept of distance mod-
ulus through the standard candle feature of supernovae,
derive the relationship between luminosity distance and
redshift, and reconstruct a luminosity-distance-redshift
curve using the principles of Gaussian processes. In Sec.
IV, we discuss the use of the existing H0LiCOW data
from seven strong gravitational lenses, perform a vari-
(2)
ance test on the time delay distance using Markov Chain
Monte Carlo methods(MCMC), and parameterize the pa-
rameter η0 with three different parameterization expres-
sions to test the correctness of the CDDR.

There are several different types of gravitational
lensing, distinguishing them by their effects. For weak
gravitational lensing, there is a geometric distortion
of the image. Multiple images will happen in strong
gravitational lensing.
II. TIME DELAY DISTANCE IN SGL
The time delay is a vital observing consequence in
SGL, which is the difference in time delay between the
perturbed and unperturbed light rays [13–17, 19], con-
necting three distances: the angular diameter distances
 2

between observer and lens, observer and source, and lens
and source[18], respectively.
For a single lens plane, the excess time delay of an im-
age at an angular position θ(θ1 , θ2 ) with corresponding
source position β(β1 , β2 ) relative to the case of no lensing
as
l s
 
t(θ i , β) =
1 + zl DA DA 1 2
(θ i − β) − ψ⊥ (θ i ) . (3)
c DAls 2 the Hubble diagram called SALT2mu is used, which de-
Where θ and β are image and source positions in SGLs,
respectively. Strong gravitational lensing can produce
multiple images, and the angular positions of these dif-
ferent images can be represented by the angle θ i . ψ⊥ (θ)
is the effective gravitational potential of the lens related
to the source position θ. The light rays emitted at the
same time from a source will reach the observer at differ-
ent times as these paths have different path lengths and
pass through different gravitational potentials. There-
fore, there is a time delay between the multiple images.
The time delay could be written as follows,
 
D∆t 1 1
∆tij = (θ i − β)2 − ψ⊥ (θ i ) − (θ j − β)2 + ψ⊥ (θ j ) . We use the Gaussian process method to obtain lumi-
c 2 2
(4)
Where θ i and θ j are the positions of images i and j,
respectively.
The time delay is related to a quantity, called the “time
delay distance”, which can be used to estimate cosmolog-
ical parameters. The time delay distance (D∆t ) is related
to the angular diameter distance between observer-lens,
observer-source, and lens-source. It is defined as[20–22]
l s
D D
D∆t ≡ (1 + zl ) A ls A . (5)
DA
Applying the seven sets of SGL data from H0LiCOW[25],
we can use the MCMC process to constrain the param-
eter η(z) as well as use the Gauss process for curve-
fitting, which has always been applying to check CDDR
in cosmology[26, 27]. This will be discussed in section IV
III. SUPERNOVAE
In some previous studies [], data reported in the form
of distance moduli depend on the details of cosmological
models, so it is inappropriate to use these distance moduli
data directly, as they depend on the cosmological models
assumed a priori. In our work, we instead use the original
measurements of the observed B-band magnitude mB ,
the stretch factor x(z), and color parameter c(z) in the
distance modulus,
µB (z; α, β, MB ) = mB (z) − MB + αx(z) − βc(z), (6)
where MB is absolute B-band magnitude, x(z) and c(z)
are the color and light-curve shape parameters [31], and α
and β are two nuisance parameters, respectively. Usually,
MB is approximately equal to []
H0
MB ≈ −19.3 ± 0.03 + 5 log10 , (7)
60 km s−1 Mpc−1
and the best-fitting value of MB is −19.18 when H0 =
63.41 km s−1 Mpc−1 . For the Pantheon SNe Ia sample,
termines α and β before fitting the cosmological param-
eters. Therefore, the Pantheon SNe Ia data only contain
mB and its corresponding error, so we will set α = β = 0
when using the Pantheon SNe Ia data [31].
The relation between DL (in unit of Mpc) and µB reads
µB = 5 log10 DL + 25. (8)
Combining Eqs. (7) and (8), we can obtain DL . Further-
more, the uncertainty of DL , denoted as ∆DL , becomes
ln 10 p
∆DL = DL (∆mB )2 + α2 (∆x)2 + β 2 (∆c)2 . (9)
5
nosity distances and their errors with the redshift range
as 0 < z < 2.3. The Gaussian process is designed to use
supervised learning to build a model (or function) from
the training data and then use the model to forecast the
new samples [32].
In this work, we choose the kernel function as the
matérn (v = 9/2) form,
  
2 3|z − z̃| 3|z − z̃|
k(z, z̃) = σf − × 1+ (10)
l l
27|z − z̃|2 18|z − z̃|3 27|z − z̃|4

+ + + .
7l2 7l3 35l4
(11)
Then, we apply these new luminosity distances to strong
gravitational lensing (SGL) systems observed by the
Sloan Lens ACS Survey (SLACS), BOSS Emission-Line
Lens Survey (BELLS), Lenses Structure and Dynam-
ics Survey (LSD), and Strong Legacy Survey SL2S sur-
veys, respectively [33]. Additionally, SGL is a system
that obtains angular diameter distances. The luminosity
distance and redshift relationship curve and the recon-
structed DL –z points from simulated SNe Ia data for
each SGL system are plotted in Fig. 1.
IV. THE METHODOLOGY AND RESULTS
Constraining the parameter η is still a question needed
to be done. Markov chain Monte Carlo process could be
used in this section, with calculating the variance of the
time delay distance of SGL.
In previous studies, we can see that there are some
methods have been chosen for η parameterization. We

FIG. 1. The reconstruction of corrected apparent luminosity
distance–redshift relation DL (z) from Pantheon data set. The
luminosity distances DL and the errors ∆DL obtained from
the SNe Ia data for each SGL system are shown with the green
and blue open circles.
select three functions for parameterization, through add
a parameter η0 , which has been listed as follows
P1 : η(z) = 1 + η0 , (12)
P2 : η(z) = 1 + η0 z, (13)
P3 : η(z) = 1 + η0 z/(1 + z). (14)
By using these three different parameterizations and
substituting them into Eq.(2), we can confirm the
correctness of CDDR, provided that we can constrain
η0 to be equal to zero in the three parameterization
procedures described above.
H0LiCOW provides seven sets of strong gravitational
lensing (SGL) data, which include directly observed time
delay distances D∆t,obs , as well as the redshifts of the lens
and source. When performing variance testing using the
Markov Chain Monte Carlo method, we can perform vari-
ance testing on the seven observed strong gravitational
lensing data sets. According to Equation (5), the time
delay distance is expressed in terms of angular diameter
distance. By using the parameterized CDDR and replac-
ing angular diameter distance with luminosity distance,
we can see that the time delay distance includes the pa-
rameter η.
The variance test formula for strong gravitational lens-
ing can be written as follows
7 th obs
!2
2
X D∆t − D∆t
χ = i
. (15)
i=1
σi
obs
Where D∆t i
is the observed time delay distance for lens
th
system i, D∆t is the theoretical time delay distance, σi
is the corresponding error in the observable.
After considering three parameterization processes and
using the MCMC method, the results of variance tests for
3
three expressions can be obtained. The result of the first
expression is shown in Fig. 2.
Figure 2 is a limitation plot of the parameter η0 using
the MCMC method for three different parametrization
methods. This is obtained by utilizing the time delay
distances from seven strong gravitational lens data pro-
vided by H0LiCOW. Due to the correspondence between
time delay distance and luminosity distance, the corre-
sponding redshift values can be found in the DL −z curve
reconstructed from supernova data in Fig.1. The calcula-
tion shows that by using the parametrization η = 1 + η0
is restricted to be η0 = 0.0098+0.050
−0.047 at 2σ level and
η0 = 0.0098 ± 0.025 at 1σ level. In the subfigure
2(b), the limitations on parameter η0 at 1σ and 2σ lev-
els obtained by calculation are η0 = −0.023+0.058−0.077 and
η0 = −0.02+0.14
−0.13 in parameterization η = 1 + η0 z. In
+0.20 +0.44
figure 2(c), it is η0 = 0.08−0.24 and η0 = 0.08−0.42 for 1σ
and 2σ when choose η = 1 + η0 z/(1 + z) in 2(c).
V. CONCLUSION
High-redshift Type Ia supernovae are now being used
as an observational tool to probe the mechanism of late-
time accelerated expansion of the universe, which is based
on two fundamental assumptions of the cosmic standard
model. Verification of the cosmic distance-duality rela-
tion (CDDR) is therefore crucial to validating the mech-
anism of cosmic acceleration and understanding the basic
properties of the universe. Using high-redshift Type Ia
supernovae as an observation tool to test the CDDR can
yield reliable results and further facilitate our exploration
of the unknown parts of the universe.
In this work, we reconstruct the luminosity distances
from the Pantheon SNe Ia samples by using the Gaussian
process, apply the luminosity distances to strong gravita-
tional lensing system, and find it fitting the observation
well. By this means, we can combine the simulated lu-
minosity distances with the angular diameter distances
from other observation systems to test the validity of the
CDDR.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
After this paper, I would like to express my sincere
gratitude and respect to all those who have supported
me. First and foremost, I would like to thank my su-
pervisor, Associate Professor Nan Li, for providing me
with valuable guidance and attentive care, enabling me
to continuously grow and make progress and complete
this work.
Secondly, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to
Xue Zhou, whose substantial efforts and help through-
out this project made our work possible and proceed
smoothly.
I am deeply grateful to everyone who has been involved
in this research, including colleagues and institutions who

(a)
FIG. 2. The likelihood functions from our analyses. The variance testing plot using MCMC method for the η = 1 + η0 ,
η = 1 + η0 z/(1 + z) and η = 1 + η0 z/(1 + z) parameterization corresponding to subfigures (a),(b) and (c) are shown in the
figure. We plot the results by using 1500 SNe Ia simulated. It can be seen that η0 is also well constrained around zero within
one and two standard deviations.
provided data and equipment that allowed me to have the
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