B2045+265: A New Four-Image Gravitational Lens from CLASS

Creators: Fassnacht, C. D.; Blandford, R. D.; Cohen, J. G.; Matthews, K.; Pearson, T. J.; Readhead, A. C. S.; Womble, D. S.; Myers, S. T.; Browne, I. W. A.; Jackson, N. J.; Marlow, D. R.; Wilkinson, P. N.; Koopmans, L. V. E.; de Bruyn, A. G.; Schilizzi, R. T.; Bremer, M.; Miley, G.

Abstract

We have discovered a new gravitational lens in the Cosmic Lens All-Sky Survey (CLASS). The lens B2045+265 is a four-image system with a maximum separation of 1."9. A fifth radio component is detected, but its radio spectrum and its positional coincidence with infrared emission from the lensing galaxy strongly suggest that it is the radio core of the lensing galaxy. This implies that the B2045+265 lens system consists of a flat-spectrum radio source that is being lensed by another flat-spectrum radio source. Infrared images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope and the Keck I Telescope detect the lensed images of the background source and the lensing galaxy. The lensed images have relative positions and flux densities that are consistent with those seen at radio wavelengths. The lensing galaxy has magnitudes of J = 19.2, m_(F160W) = 18.8, and K = 17.6 mag in a 1."9 diameter aperture, which corresponds to the size of the Einstein ring of the lens. Spectra of the system taken with the Keck I Telescope reveal a lens redshift of z_l = 0.8673 and a source redshift of z_s= 1.28. The lens spectrum is typical of an Sa galaxy. The image splitting and system redshifts imply that the projected mass inside the Einstein radius of the lensing galaxy is M_E = 4.7 × 10^(11) h^(-1) M⊙. An estimate of the light emitted inside the Einstein radius from the K magnitude gives a mass-to-light ratio in the rest-frame B band of (M/L_B)_E = 20 h (M/L_B)⊙. Both the mass and mass-to-light ratio are higher than what is seen in nearby Sa galaxies. In fact, the implied rotation velocity for the lensing galaxy is 2–3 times higher than what is seen in nearby spiral galaxies. The large projected mass inside the Einstein ring radius may be the result of a significant amount of dark matter in the system, perhaps from a compact group of galaxies associated with the primary lensing galaxy; however, it may also arise from a misidentification of the source redshift. A simple model of the gravitational potential of the lens reproduces the image positions well, but further modeling is required to satisfy the constraints from the image flux density ratios. With further observations and modeling, this lens may yield an estimate of H_0.

Additional Information

© 1999 The American Astronomical Society. Received 1998 May 18; accepted 1998 October 29. Based on observations made with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, which is operated by Associated Universities, Inc., under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation; with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute which is operated by AURA, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555; and with the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Keck Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. We are indebted to the VLA analysts and operators, to Terry Stickel and Wayne Wack for heroic operation of the Keck Telescopes, and to the Keck Observatory and STScI staff. C. D. F. thanks Erik Leitch for generously spending many hours in instruction in the use of the OVRO 40 m telescope and for writing the CMBPROG software. The operation of the 40 m telescope would be impossible without the dedication and knowledge of Russ Keeney and Mark Hodges. We are grateful to Gerry Neugebauer, Lee Armus, and Aaron Evans for their expert assistance during the reduction of the NIRC and NICMOS data. We thank Lori Lubin, D. Wardell Hogg, Mike Pahre, Mark Metzger, and Chung-Pei Ma for useful discussions and comments on the manuscript. We thank the anonymous referee for helpful suggestions on how to improve the paper. This work is supported by the NSF under grant AST 94-20018 and by the European Commission, TMR Program, Research Network contract ERBFMRXCT96-0034 "CERES."

Attached Files

Published - Fassnacht_1999_AJ_117_658.pdf

Accepted Version - 9811167.pdf

Files

9811167.pdf

Files (1.0 MB)

Name	Size	Download all
9811167.pdf md5:fa76fb86645410e1b267db224c06707e	618.2 kB	Preview Download
Fassnacht_1999_AJ_117_658.pdf md5:83fa989ee28fdbe8190dcffacf1a88b2	431.1 kB	Preview Download

Additional details

	All versions	This version
Views	0	0
Downloads	0	0
Data volume	0 Bytes	0 Bytes