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Register a new userA Time Delay for the Largest Gravitationally Lensed Quasar: SDSS J1004+4112
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Added by
Christopher S. Kochanek
Publication date
2006
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
Authors
J. Fohlmeister
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We present 426 epochs of optical monitoring data spanning 1000 days from December 2003 to June 2006 for the gravitationally lensed quasar SDSS J1004+4112. The time delay between the A and B images is 38.4+/-2.0 days in the expected sense that B leads A and the overall time ordering is C-B-A-D-E. The measured delay invalidates all published models. The models failed because they neglected the perturbations from cluster member galaxies. Models including the galaxies can fit the data well, but strong conclusions about the cluster mass distribution should await the measurement of the longer, and less substructure sensitive, delays of the C and D images. For these images, a CB delay of 681+/-15 days is plausible but requires confirmation, while CB and AD delays of >560 days and > 800 days are required. We clearly detect microlensing of the A/B images, with the delay-corrected flux ratios changing from B-A=0.44+/-0.01 mag in the first season to 0.29+/-0.01 mag in the second season and 0.32+/-0.01 mag in the third season.
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We present new spectroscopic and polarimetric observations of the gravitational lens SDSS J1004+4112 taken with the 6m telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory (SAO, Russia). In order to explain the variability that is observed only in the blue wing of the C IV emission line, corresponding to image A, we analyze the spectroscopy and polarimetry of the four images of the lensed system. Spectra of the four images were taken in 2007, 2008, and 2018, and polarization was measured in the period 2014-2017. Additionally, we modeled the microlensing effect in the polarized light, assuming that the source of polarization is the equatorial scattering in the inner part of the torus. We find that a blue enhancement in the CIV line wings affects component A in all three epochs. We also find that the UV continuum of component D was amplified in the period 2007-2008, and that the red wings of CIII] and CIV appear brighter in D than in the other three components. We report significant changes in the polarization parameters of image D, which can be explained by microlensing.Our simulations of microlensing of an equatorial scattering region in the dusty torus can qualitatively explain the observed changes in the polarization degree and angle of image D. We do not detect significant variability in the polarization parameters of the other images (A, B, and C), although the averaged values of the polarization degree and angle are different for the different images. Microlensing of a broad line region model including a compact outflowing component can qualitatively explain the CIV blue wing enhancement (and variation) in component A. However, to confirmed this hypothesis, we need additional spectroscopic observation in future.
We present eight monitoring seasons of the four brightest images of the gravitational lens SDSS J1004+4112 observed between December 2003 and October 2010. Using measured time delays for the images A, B and C and the model predicted time delay for image D we have removed the intrinsic quasar variability, finding microlensing events of about 0.5 and 0.7 mag of amplitude in the images C and D. From the statistics of microlensing amplitudes in images A, C, and D, we have inferred the half-light radius (at {lambda} rest = 2407 {AA}) for the accretion disk using two different methods, $R_{1/2}=8.7^{+18.5}_{-5.5} sqrt{M/0.3 M_odot}$ (histograms product) and $R_{1/2} = 4.2^{+3.2}_{-2.2} sqrt{M/0.3 M_odot}$ light-days ($chi^2$). The results are in agreement within uncertainties with the size predicted from the black hole mass in SDSS J1004+4112 using the thin disk theory.
We study the recently discovered gravitational lens SDSS J1004+4112, the first quasar lensed by a cluster of galaxies. It consists of four images with a maximum separation of 14.62. The system has been confirmed as a lensed quasar at z=1.734 on the basis of deep imaging and spectroscopic follow-up observations. We present color-magnitude relations for galaxies near the lens plus spectroscopy of three central cluster members, which unambiguously confirm that a cluster at z=0.68 is responsible for the large image separation. We find a wide range of lens models consistent with the data, but they suggest four general conclusions: (1) the brightest cluster galaxy and the center of the cluster potential well appear to be offset by several kpc; (2) the cluster mass distribution must be elongated in the North--South direction, which is consistent with the observed distribution of cluster galaxies; (3) the inference of a large tidal shear (~0.2) suggests significant substructure in the cluster; and (4) enormous uncertainty in the predicted time delays between the images means that measuring the delays would greatly improve constraints on the models. We also compute the probability of such large separation lensing in the SDSS quasar sample, on the basis of the CDM model. The lack of large separation lenses in previous surveys and the discovery of one in SDSS together imply a mass fluctuation normalization sigma_8=1.0^{+0.4}_{-0.2} (95% CL), if cluster dark matter halos have an inner slope -1.5. Shallower profiles would require higher values of sigma_8. Although the statistical conclusion might be somewhat dependent on the degree of the complexity of the lens potential, the discovery is consistent with the predictions of the abundance of cluster-scale halos in the CDM scenario. (Abridged)
We have identified three multiply imaged galaxies in Hubble Space Telescope images of the redshift z=0.68 cluster responsible for the large-separation quadruply lensed quasar, SDSS J1004+4112. Spectroscopic redshifts have been secured for two of these systems using the Keck I 10m telescope. The most distant lensed galaxy, at z=3.332, forms at least four images, and an Einstein ring encompassing 3.1 times more area than the Einstein ring of the lensed QSO images at z=1.74, due to the greater source distance. For a second multiply imaged galaxy, we identify Ly_alpha emission at a redshift of z=2.74. The cluster mass profile can be constrained from near the center of the brightest cluster galaxy, where we observe both a radial arc and the fifth image of the lensed quasar, to the Einstein radius of the highest redshift galaxy, ~110 kpc. Our preliminary modeling indicates that the mass approximates an elliptical body, with an average projected logarithmic gradient of ~-0.5. The system is potentially useful for a direct measurement of world models in a previously untested redshift range.
We investigate the dependence of the time delays for the large-separation gravitationally lensed quasar SDSS J1004+4112 on the inner mass profile of the lensing cluster. Adopting the mass model whose innermost density profile is parameterized as rho propto r^{-alpha}, we derive a series of mass models which can fit observational data and then compute the probability distribution functions of time delays. We find that larger alpha has longer time delays, longer tails at the higher end of the probability distribution, and larger model uncertainties. The ratios of time delays slightly depend on the slope alpha. Among others, time delays between images C and A (or B) have little dependence on the inner slope, particularly when the time delays are short. The dependence of time delays on alpha is well fitted by a linear form, which reflects well-known degeneracy between the mass profile and time delays. We perform a Monte-Carlo simulation to illustrate how well the inner slope can be constrained from measurements of time delays. We find that measurements of more than one time delays result in reasonably tight constraints on the inner slope (sigma_{alpha} lesssim 0.25), while only one time delay cannot determine the inner slope very well. Our result indicates that time delays indeed serve as a powerful tool to determine the mass profile, despite the complexity of the lensing cluster.
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