49 research outputs found
Magnification Ratio of the Fluctuating Light in Gravitational Lens 0957+561
Radio observations establish the B/A magnification ratio of gravitational
lens 0957+561 at about 0.75. Yet, for more than 15 years, the optical
magnfication ratio has been between 0.9 and 1.12. The accepted explanation is
microlensing of the optical source. However, this explanation is mildly
discordant with (i) the relative constancy of the optical ratio, and (ii)
recent data indicating possible non-achromaticity in the ratio. To study these
issues, we develop a statistical formalism for separately measuring, in a
unified manner, the magnification ratio of the fluctuating and constant parts
of the light curve. Applying the formalism to the published data of Kundi\'c et
al. (1997), we find that the magnification ratios of fluctuating parts in both
the g and r colors agrees with the magnification ratio of the constant part in
g-band, and tends to disagree with the r-band value. One explanation could be
about 0.1 mag of consistently unsubtracted r light from the lensing galaxy G1,
which seems unlikely. Another could be that 0957+561 is approaching a caustic
in the microlensing pattern.Comment: 12 pages including 1 PostScript figur
Precision Photometry for Q0957+561 Images A and B
Since the persuasive determination of the time-delay in Q0957+561, much
interest has centered around shifting and subtracting the A and B light-curves
to look for residuals due to microlensing. Solar mass objects in the lens
galaxy produce variations on timescales of decades, with amplitudes of a few
tenths of a magnitude, but MACHO's (with masses of order to
) produce variations at only the 5% level. To detect such small
variations, highly precise photometry is required.
To that end, we have used 200 observations over three nights to examine the
effects of seeing on the light-curves. We have determined that seeing itself
can be responsible for correlated 5% variations in the light-curves of A and B.
We have found, however, that these effects can be accurately removed, by
subtracting the light from the lens galaxy, and by correcting for cross
contamination of light between the closely juxtaposed A and B images. We find
that these corrections improve the variations due to seeing from 5% to a level
only marginally detectable over photon shot noise (0.5%).Comment: 21 Pages with 9 PostScript figures, AASTeX 4 (preprint style
The quasar Q0957+561: Lensed CO emission from a disk at z~1.4?
In recent years large efforts have been made to detect molecular gas towards
high redshifted objects. Up to now the literature reports on only two cases of
CO-detection in quasars at a redshift between 1 and 2 - Q0957+561, a
gravitationally lensed system at z=1.41 (Planesas et al. 1999), and HR10 at
z=1.44 (Andreani et al. 2000). According to Planesas et al. (1999), 12CO(2-1)
emission was detected towards both the lensed images of Q0957+561 with the IRAM
Plateau de Bure Interferometer (PdBI). In contrast to the optical spectra of
the two images which support the idea that they are images of one and the same
object, the CO-spectra were surprisingly different: the southern image (named
CO-B) shows a single blueshifted line whereas a double-peaked line profile with
a blue- and a redshifted part appears towards the northern image (CO-A). Based
on the observations and on simulations with a gravitational lens program, we
are tempted to argue that the line profile traces the presence of molecular gas
of a disk in the host galaxy around the quasar. We have now new observations
with the PdBI providing the necessary sensitivity to corroborate our disk
model.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, to appear in "Proceedings of the 4th
Cologne-Bonn-Zermatt-Symposium", ed. S. Pfalzner, C. Kramer, C. Straubmeier,
and A. Heithausen (Springer Verlag
A Large Brightness Enhancement of the QSO 0957+561 A Component
We report an increase of more than 0.2 mag in the optical brightness of the
leading image (A) of the gravitational lens Q0957+561, detected during the
09/2000 -- 06/2001 monitoring campaign (2001 observing season). The brightening
is similar to or even greater than the largest change ever detected during the
20 years of monitoring of this system. We discuss two different provisional
explanations to this event: intrinsic source variability or microlensing
(either short timescale microlensing or cessation of the historical
microlensing). An exhaustive photometric monitoring of Q0957+561 is needed
until summer of 2002 and during 2003 to discriminate between these
possibilities.Comment: 13 pages including 3 figures and 1 table. Accepted for publication in
ApJ Let
Keck Spectroscopy of Three Gravitational Lens Systems Discovered in the JVAS and CLASS Surveys
We present spectra of three gravitational lens systems taken with the Low
Resolution Imaging Spectrograph on the W. M. Keck Telescopes. All of the
systems were discovered in the JVAS and CLASS radio surveys, which were
designed to find lenses suitable for measuring . Previous spectra of these
systems had low signal-to-noise ratios, and only one of the source redshifts
was secure. Our observations give unambiguous lens and source redshifts for all
of the systems, with (, ) = (0.4060,1.339), (0.5990,1.535) and
(0.4144,1.589) for B0712+472, B1030+074 and B1600+434, respectively. The
observed image splittings in the systems imply that the masses of the lensing
galaxies within their Einstein rings are 5.4, 1.2, and 6.3\times 10^{10} h^{-1} M_{\sun}. The resulting V-band
mass-to-light ratios for B0712+472 and B1030+074, measured inside their
Einstein ring radii, are \sim 10h (M/L)_{\sun, V}, slightly higher than
values observed in nearby ellipticals. For B1600+434, the mass-to-light ratio
is 48h (M/L)_{\sun, V}. This high value can be explained, at least in part,
by the prominent dust lane running through the galaxy. Two of the three lens
systems show evidence of variability, so monitoring may yield a time delay and
thus a measurement of .Comment: 8 pages, 5 Postscript Figures, uses aastex. To appear in A.
Values of H_0 from Models of the Gravitational Lens 0957+561
The lensed double QSO 0957+561 has a well-measured time delay and hence is
useful for a global determination of H0. Uncertainty in the mass distribution
of the lens is the largest source of uncertainty in the derived H0. We
investigate the range of \hn produced by a set of lens models intended to mimic
the full range of astrophysically plausible mass distributions, using as
constraints the numerous multiply-imaged sources which have been detected. We
obtain the first adequate fit to all the observations, but only if we include
effects from the galaxy cluster beyond a constant local magnification and
shear. Both the lens galaxy and the surrounding cluster must depart from
circular symmetry as well.
Lens models which are consistent with observations to 95% CL indicate
H0=104^{+31}_{-23}(1-\kthirty) km/s/Mpc. Previous weak lensing measurements
constrain the mean mass density within 30" of G1 to be kthirty=0.26+/-0.16 (95%
CL), implying H0=77^{+29}_{-24}km/s/Mpc (95% CL). The best-fitting models span
the range 65--80 km/s/Mpc. Further observations will shrink the confidence
interval for both the mass model and \kthirty.
The range of H0 allowed by the full gamut of our lens models is substantially
larger than that implied by limiting consideration to simple power law density
profiles. We therefore caution against use of simple isothermal or power-law
mass models in the derivation of H0 from other time-delay systems. High-S/N
imaging of multiple or extended lensed features will greatly reduce the H0
uncertainties when fitting complex models to time-delay lenses.Comment: AASTEX, 48 pages 4 figures, 2 tables. Also available at:
http://www.astro.lsa.umich.edu:80/users/philf/www/papers/list.htm
Microlensing in the double quasar SBS1520+530
We present the results of a monitoring campaign of the double quasar
SBS1520+530 at Maidanak observatory from April 2003 to August 2004. We obtained
light curves in V and R filters that show small-amplitude \Delta m~0.1 mag
intrinsic variations of the quasar on time scales of about 100 days. The data
set is consistent with the previously determined time delay of \Delta
t=(130+-3) days by Burud et al. (2002). We find that the time delay corrected
magnitude difference between the quasar images is now larger by (0.14+-0.03)
mag than during the observations by Burud et al. (2002). This confirms the
presence of gravitational microlensing variations in this system.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in A&
A Determination of H_0 with the CLASS Gravitational Lens B1608+656: III. A Significant Improvement in the Precision of the Time Delay Measurements
The gravitational lens CLASS B1608+656 is the only four-image lens system for
which all three independent time delays have been measured. This makes the
system an excellent candidate for a high-quality determination of H_0 at
cosmological distances. However, the original measurements of the time delays
had large (12-20%) uncertainties, due to the low level of variability of the
background source during the monitoring campaign. In this paper, we present
results from two additional VLA monitoring campaigns. In contrast to the ~5%
variations seen during the first season of monitoring, the source flux density
changed by 25-30% in each of the subsequent two seasons. We analyzed the
combined data set from all three seasons of monitoring to improve significantly
the precision of the time delay measurements; the delays are consistent with
those found in the original measurements, but the uncertainties have decreased
by factors of two to three. We combined the delays with revised isothermal mass
models to derive a measurement of H_0. Depending on the positions of the galaxy
centroids, which vary by up to 0.1 arcsec in HST images obtained with different
filters, we obtain H_0 = 61-65 km/s/Mpc, for (Omega_M,Omega_L) = (0.3,0.7). The
value of H_0 decreases by 6% if (Omega_M,Omega_L) = (1.0,0.0). The formal
uncertainties on H_0 due to the time delay measurements are +/- 1 (+/- 2)
km/s/Mpc for the 1-sigma (2-sigma) confidence limits. Thus, the systematic
uncertainties due to the lens model, which are on the order of +/- 15 km/s/Mpc,
now dominate the error budget for this system. In order to improve the
measurement of H_0 with this lens, new models that incorporate the constraints
provided by stellar dynamics and the optical/infrared Einstein ring seen in HST
images must be developed.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 32 pages, 8 figures (3 in color