DETECTION OF A COMPANION LENS GALAXY USING THE MID-INFRARED FLUX RATIOS OF THE GRAVITATIONALLY LENSED QUASAR H1413+117
- Astronomy Department, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy and the Center for Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210 (United States)
We present the first resolved mid-infrared (IR) (11 {mu}m) 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.
- OSTI ID:
- 21333720
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 699, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/699/2/1578; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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