Cosmology with supernova Encore in the strong lensing cluster MACS J0138−2155: Spectroscopy with MUSE
Open accessAbstract
We present a comprehensive spectroscopic analysis of MACS J0138−2155, at z = 0.336. It is the first galaxy cluster known to host two strongly lensed supernovae (SNe), Requiem and Encore, and thus provides us with a chance to obtain a reliable H0 measurement from the time delays between multiple images. We took advantage of new spectroscopic data from the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on the Very Large Telescope, complemented with archival imaging from the Hubble Space Telescope. The MUSE data cover a central 1 arcmin 2 of the lensing cluster, for a total depth of 3.7 hours, including 2.9 hours recently obtained by our Target of Opportunity programme. Based on these observations, we release a new spectroscopic catalogue containing reliable redshifts for 107 objects. This includes 50 galaxy cluster members with secure redshift values in the range 0.324 < z < 0.349, and 13 lensed multiple images from four background sources between 0.767 ≤ z ≤ 3.420, including four images of the host galaxy of the two SNe. We exploited the MUSE data to study the stellar kinematics of 14 bright cluster members and two background galaxies, obtaining reliable measurements of their line-of-sight velocity dispersion. Finally, we combined these results with measurements of the total magnitude of the cluster members in the Hubble Space Telescope F160W band to calibrate the Faber-Jackson relation between luminosity and stellar velocity dispersion (L ∝ σv1/α) for the early-type cluster member galaxies, measuring a slope α = 0.25−0.05+0.05 and a scatter of 25−4+6 km s−1 about the relation. We compared the calibrated relation with six other strong lensing clusters in the redshift range 0.31 ≤ z ≤ 0.59, finding a general agreement and no clear sign of evolution with redshift. A pure and complete sample of cluster member galaxies and a reliable characterisation of their total mass structure are key to building accurate total mass maps of the cluster and mitigating the impact of parametric degeneracies, which is necessary for inferring the value of H0 from the measured time delays between the lensed images of the two SNe.
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An independent team reported a similar Faber-Jackson slope in MACSJ0138 of α ∼ 0.25 ± 0.05 using newer, deeper MUSE observations.
“These results, published in Granata et al. [34], used different methodology on different data, yet yielded the highly consistent measurement of α ∼ 0 . 25 ± 0 . 05.”
From Constraint on dark matter self-interaction from combined strong lensing and stellar kinematics in MACS J0138-2155 (2026) · cites this paper as Granata et al. [34]
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Research works printed but not linked: 13
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O’Donnell, J. H., Jeltema, T. E., Roberts, M. G., Nightingale, J., Flowers, A., & Aldas, D. (2026) · Physical Review D · doi:10.1103/hfgd-245k · Cited by 5 · see citing works
- Authors
- Granata, G., Caminha, G. B., Ertl, S., Grillo, C., Schuldt, S., Suyu, S. H., Acebron, A., Bergamini, P., Cañameras, R., Koekemoer, A. M., Rosati, P., & Taubenberger, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Milan (IT)
- Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (DE)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Space Telescope Science Institute (US)
- University of Ferrara (IT)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Astronomy & Astrophysics
- Publisher
- EDP Sciences
- Published
- 2025-05
- Volume
- 697
- Pages
- A94
- ISSN
- 0004-6361 (ISSN-L)
- 1432-0746
- OpenAlex
- W4409059985
- Cited by
- 9
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 4
- FWCI
- 3.52
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Astronomy and Astrophysics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DIGITAL.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)) (acceptedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Springer Link (Chiba Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Archivio Istituzionale della Ricerca (Universita Degli Studi Di Milano) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- Institutional Research Information System University of Ferrara (University of Ferrara) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (cc-by)
- Funders
- Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca (PRIN-MIUR 2020SKSTHZ.)
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (EXC-2094 – 390783311)
- Horizon 2020 Framework Programme (Marie Skłodowska- Curie grant agreement No 101105167 — FASTIDIoUS, ERC No 771776)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Cosmology and Gravitation Theories
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae
- Keywords
- strong gravitational lensing, lensed supernovae, Hubble constant, time delay cosmology, Faber-Jackson relation, stellar kinematics, line-of-sight velocity dispersion, cluster member galaxies, early-type galaxies, Muses
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