SIMBAD references

2009ApJ...699.1578M - Astrophys. J., 699, 1578-1583 (2009/July-2)

Detection of a companion lens galaxy using the mid-infrared flux ratios of the gravitationally lensed quasar H1413+117.

MacLEOD C.L., KOCHANEK C.S. and AGOL E.

Abstract (from CDS):

We present the first resolved mid-infrared (IR) (11 µm) observations of the four-image quasar lens H1413+117 using the Michelle camera on Gemini North. All previous observations (optical, near-IR, and radio) of this lens show a "flux anomaly," where the image flux ratios cannot be explained by a simple, central lens galaxy. We attempt to reproduce the mid-IR flux ratios, which are insensitive to extinction and microlensing, by modeling the main lens as a singular isothermal ellipsoid. This model fails to reproduce the flux ratios. However, we can explain the flux ratios simply by adding to the model a nearby galaxy detected in the H band by the Hubble Space Telescope. This perturbing galaxy lies 4".0 from the main lens and it has a critical radius of 0".63±0".02 which is similar to that of the main lens, as expected from their similar H-band fluxes. More remarkably, this galaxy is not required to obtain a good fit to the system astrometry, so this represents the first clear detection of an object through its effect on the image fluxes of a gravitational lens. This is a parallel to the detections of visible satellites from astrometric anomalies, and provides a proof of the concept of searching for substructure in galaxies using anomalous flux ratios.

Abstract Copyright:

Journal keyword(s): galaxies: structure - gravitational lensing

Errata: erratum vol. 703, p. 1177 (2009)

Simbad objects: 29

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