No Arabic abstract
We use the structure of the Einstein ring image of the quasar host galaxy in the four-image quasar lens PG1115+080 to determine the angular structure of the gravitational potential of the lens galaxy. We find that it is well described as an ellipsoid and that the best fit non-ellipsoidal models are consistent with the ellipsoidal model. We find upper limits on the standard parameters for the m=3 and m=4 deviations from an ellipse of <0.035 and <0.064, respectively. We also find that the position of the center of mass is consistent with the center of light, with an upper limit of 0.005 arcsec on the offset between them. Neither the ellipsoidal nor the non-ellipsoidal models can reproduce the observed image flux ratios while simultaneously maintaining a reasonable fit to the Einstein ring, so the anomalous flux ratio of the A_1 and A_2 quasar images must be due to substructure in the gravitational potential such as compact satellite galaxies or stellar microlenses rather than odd angular structure in the lens galaxy.
Optical photometry is presented for the quadruple gravitational lens PG1115+080. A preliminary reduction of data taken from November 1995 to June 1996 gives component ``C leading component ``B by 23.7+/-3.4 days and components ``A1 and ``A2 by 9.4 days. A range of models has been fit to the image positions, none of which gives an adequate fit. The best fitting and most physically plausible of these, taking the lensing galaxy and the associated group of galaxies to be singular isothermal spheres, gives a Hubble constant of 42 km/s/Mpc for Omega=1, with an observational uncertainty of 14%, as computed from the B-C time delay measurement. Taking the lensing galaxy to have an approximately E5 isothermal mass distribution yields H0=64 km/sec/Mpc while taking the galaxy to be a point mass gives H0=84 km/sec/Mpc. The former gives a particularly bad fit to the position of the lensing galaxy, while the latter is inconsistent with measurements of nearby galaxy rotation curves. Constraints on these and other possible models are expected to improve with planned HST observations.
We determine the most likely dark-matter fraction in the elliptical galaxy quadruply lensing the quasar PG1115+080 based on analyses of the X-ray fluxes of the individual images in 2000 and 2008. Between the two epochs, the A2 image of PG1115+080 brightened relative to the other images by a factor of six in X-rays. We argue that the A2 image had been highly demagnified in 2000 by stellar microlensing in the intervening galaxy and has recently crossed a caustic, thereby creating a new pair of micro-images and brightening in the process. Over the same period, the A2 image has brightened by a factor of only 1.2 in the optical. The most likely ratio of smooth material (dark matter) to clumpy material (stars) in the lensing galaxy to explain the observations is ~90% of the matter in a smooth dark-matter component and ~10% in stars.
Hubble Space Telescope observations of the gravitational lens PG 1115+080 in the infrared show the known z =0.310 lens galaxy and reveal the z = 1.722 quasar host galaxy. The main lens galaxy G is a nearly circular (ellipticity < 0.07) elliptical galaxy with a de Vaucouleurs profile and an effective radius of R_e = 0.59 +/- 0.06 arcsec (1.7 +/- 0.2 h^{-1} kpc for Omega = 1 and h = H_0/100 km/s/Mpc). G is part of a group of galaxies that is a required component of all successful lens models. The new quasar and lens positions (3 milliarcsecond errors) yield constraints for these models that are statistically degenerate, but several conclusions are firmly established. (1) The principal lens galaxy is an elliptical galaxy with normal structural properties, lying close to the fundamental plane for its redshift. (2) The potential of the main lens galaxy is nearly round, even when not constrained by the small ellipticity of the light of this galaxy. (3) All models involving two mass distributions place the group component near the luminosity-weighted centroid of the brightest nearby group members. (4) All models predict a time delay ratio r_{ABC} = 1.3. (5) Our lens models predict H_0 = 44 +/- 4 km/s/Mpc if the lens galaxy contains dark matter and has a flat rotation curve, and H_0 = 65 +/- 5 km/s/Mpc if it has a constant mass-to-light ratio. (6) Any dark halo of the main lens galaxy must be truncated near 1.5 arcsec (4 h^{-1} kpc) before the inferred Ho rises above 60 km/s/Mpc. (7) The quasar host galaxy is lensed into an Einstein ring connecting the four quasar images, whose shape is reproduced by the models. Improved NICMOS imaging of the ring could be used to break the degeneracy of the lens models.
Galaxy lenses are frequently modeled as an elliptical mass distribution with external shear and isothermal spheres to account for secondary and line-of-sight galaxies. There is statistical evidence that some fraction of observed quads are inconsistent with these assumptions, and require a dipole-like contribution to the mass with respect to the light. Simplifying assumptions about the shape of mass distributions can lead to the incorrect recovery of parameters such as $H_0$. We create several tests of synthetic quad populations with different deviations from an elliptical shape, then fit them with an ellipse+shear model, and measure the recovered values of $H_0$. Kinematic constraints are not included. We perform two types of fittings -- one with a single point source and one with an array of sources emulating an extended source. We carry out two model-free comparisons between our mock quads and the observed population. One result of these comparisons is a statistical inconsistency not yet mentioned in the literature: the image distance ratios with respect to the lens center of observed quads appear to span a much wider range than those of synthetic or simulated quads. Bearing this discrepancy in mind, our mock populations can result in biases on $H_0$ $sim10%$.
We present mid-infrared imaging at 11.7 mu m for the quadruple lens systems, PG1115+080 and B1422+231, using the cooled mid-infrared camera and spectrometer (COMICS) attached on the Subaru telescope. These lensed QSOs are characterized by their anomalous optical and radio flux ratios as obtained for (A1, A2) images of PG1115+080 and (A, B, C) images of B1422+231, respectively, i.e., such flux ratios are hardly reproduced by lens models with smooth mass distribution. Our mid-infrared observations for these images have revealed that the mid-infrared flux ratio A2/A1 of PG1115+080 is virtually consistent with smooth lens models (but inconsistent with the optical flux ratio), whereas for B1422+231, the mid-infrared flux ratios among (A, B, C) are in good agreement with the radio flux ratios. We also identify a clear infrared bump in the spectral energy distributions of these QSOs, thereby indicating that the observed mid-infrared fluxes originate from a hot dust torus around a QSO nucleus. Based on the size estimate of the dust torus, we place limits on the mass of a substructure in these lens systems, causing the anomalous optical or radio flux ratios. For PG1115+080, the mass of a substructure inside an Einstein radius, M_E, is < 16 Msun, corresponding to either a star or a low-mass CDM subhalo having the mass of M_{100}^{SIS} < 2.2 * 10^4 Msun inside radius of 100 pc if modeled as a singular isothermal sphere (SIS). For B1422+231, we obtain M_E > 209 Msun, indicating that a CDM subhalo is more likely, having the mass of M_{100}^{SIS} > 7.4 * 10^4 Msun