Arc Minute Gravitational Lenses and Cosmic Strings

Technical Report · Sun Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1986

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1448034· OSTI ID:1448034

Bennett, David P. ^[1]; Stebbins, Albert ^[2]

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1. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States); Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
2. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)

In a recent letter by Paczynski, it was suggested that several large separation gravitational lens candidates could be explained by the existence of cosmic strings. These lens candidates are quasar pairs with separation between 1 and 4 arc minutes. Paczynski states that arc minute separation quasar pairs, which are lensed by long straight strings, are a prediction of cosmic string theory. Paczynski's work received a great deal of attention when preliminary evidence for a gravitational lens with a 2.6' separation was published by Turner et. al. Because a lens with such a large separation is difficult to explain with unseen conventional objects and requires a large mass to light ration for the lens, this lens candidate was reported in some quarters as evidence for a cosmic string. Subsequent observations now suggest that the quasar pair is not lensed. The purpose of this correspondence is to point out that such large separation lenses are not predicted by cosmic string theories.

• Research Organization: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76SF00515
• OSTI ID: 1448034
• Report Number(s): SLAC-PUB--4014
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS