Detection of a spiral lens galaxy and optical variability in the gravitational lens system B1600+434

The gravitationally lensed quasar B1600+434 (z=1.61, mV=21.6) has been observed at the 2.56m Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT). In this Letter we report the discovery of an edge-on late-type galaxy located between the two lensed components (separation 1\farcs4), close to the fainter image. The galaxy photometry indicates that its redshift is approximately 0.4. We detect a large colour difference between the two images due to significant obscuration of the faint image. The estimated amount of absorption as a function of colour indicates that the extinction may be due to dust in the lensing galaxy. We also present evidence of flux variability in B1600+434 with a detected change of 0.25mag in one year. The theoretically expected time delay is of the order of one month and so the system may be an interesting object for determining the Hubble constant.Comment: 4 pages, 3 postscript figures, accepted for publication in A&A Letter

Discovery of a high-redshift Einstein ring

We report the discovery of a partial Einstein ring of radius 1.48arcsec produced by a massive (and seemingly isolated) elliptical galaxy. The spectroscopic follow-up at the VLT reveals a 2L* galaxy at z=0.986, which is lensing a post-starburst galaxy at z=3.773. This unique configuration yields a very precise measure of the mass of the lens within the Einstein radius, (8.3e11 +- 0.4)/h70 Msolar. The fundamental plane relation indicates an evolution rate of d [log (M/L)B] / dz = -0.57+-0.04, similar to other massive ellipticals at this redshift. The source galaxy shows strong interstellar absorption lines indicative of large gas-phase metallicities, with fading stellar populations after a burst. Higher resolution spectra and imaging will allow the detailed study of an unbiased representative of the galaxy population when the universe was just 12% of its current age.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted in A&A Le

Spectroscopic confirmation of a cluster of galaxies at z=1 in the field of the gravitational lens MG2016+112

We present new optical data on the cluster AX J2019+1127 identified by the X-ray satellite ASCA at z\sim 1 (Hattori et al. 1997). The data suggest the presence of a high-redshift cluster of galaxies responsible for the large separation triple quasar MG2016+112. Our deep photometry reveals an excess of z\sim 1 galaxy candidates, as already suspected by Benitez et al. (1999). Our spectroscopic survey of 44 objects in the field shows an excess of 6 red galaxies securely identified at z \sim 1, with a mean redshift of z =1.005 +/- 0.002. We estimate a velocity dispersion of \sigma = 771 (+430/-160) km s(-1) based on these 6 galaxies and a V-band mass-to-light ratio of 215 (+308/-77) h_50 M/L_sol. Our observations thus confirm the existence of a massive structure acting as the lens, which explains the unusual configuration of the triple quasar. Hence, there is no more need to invoke the existence of a ``dark cluster'' to understand this lens system.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, uses aa.cls, accepted to Astronomy and Astrophysics with minor change

Gamma-ray burst host galaxies and the link to star-formation

We briefly review the current status of the study of long-duration gamma-ray burst (GRB) host galaxies. GRB host galaxies are mainly interesting to study for two reasons: 1) they may help us understand where and when massive stars were formed throughout cosmic history, and 2) the properties of host galaxies and the localisation within the hosts where GRBs are formed may give essential clues to the precise nature of the progenitors. The main current problem is to understand to what degree GRBs are biased tracers of star formation. If GRBs are only formed by low-metallicity stars, then their host galaxies will not give a representative view of where stars are formed in the Universe (at least not a low redshifts). On the other hand, if there is no dependency on metallicity then the nature of the host galaxies leads to the perhaps surprising conclusion that most stars are formed in dwarf galaxies. In order to resolve this issue and to fully exploit the potential of GRBs as probes of star-forming galaxies throughout the observable universe it is mandatory that a complete sample of bursts with redshifts and host galaxy detections is built.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures. To appear in the proceedings of the Eleventh Marcel Grossmann Meeting on General Relativity, eds. H. Kleinert, R. T. Jantzen & R. Ruffini, World Scientific, Singapore, 200

Breaking the Disk/Halo Degeneracy with Gravitational Lensing

The degeneracy between the disk and the dark matter contribution to galaxy rotation curves remains an important uncertainty in our understanding of disk galaxies. Here we discuss a new method for breaking this degeneracy using gravitational lensing by spiral galaxies, and apply this method to the spiral lens B1600+434 as an example. The combined image and lens photometry constraints allow models for B1600+434 with either a nearly singular dark matter halo, or a halo with a sizable core. A maximum disk model is ruled out with high confidence. Further information, such as the circular velocity of this galaxy, will help break the degeneracies. Future studies of spiral galaxy lenses will be able to determine the relative contribution of disk, bulge, and halo to the mass in the inner parts of galaxies.Comment: Replaced with minor revisions, a typo fixed, and reference added; 21 pages, 8 figures, ApJ accepte

Mass and dust in the disk of a spiral lens galaxy

Gravitational lensing is a potentially important probe of spiral galaxy structure, but only a few cases of lensing by spiral galaxies are known. We present Hubble Space Telescope and Magellan observations of the two-image quasar PMN J2004-1349, revealing that the lens galaxy is a spiral galaxy. One of the quasar images passes through a spiral arm of the galaxy and suffers 3 magnitudes of V-band extinction. Using simple lens models, we show that the mass quadrupole is well-aligned with the observed galaxy disk. A more detailed model with components representing the bulge and disk gives a bulge-to-disk mass ratio of 0.16 +/- 0.05. The addition of a spherical dark halo, tailored to produce an overall flat rotation curve, does not change this conclusion.Comment: ApJ, in press [9pp, 7 figs

Gravitational lensing statistical properties in general FRW cosmologies with dark energy component(s): analytic results

Various astronomical observations have been consistently making a strong case for the existence of a component of dark energy with negative pressure in the universe. It is now necessary to take the dark energy component(s) into account in gravitational lensing statistics and other cosmological tests. By using the comoving distance we derive analytic but simple expressions for the optical depth of multiple image, the expected value of image separation and the probability distribution of image separation caused by an assemble of singular isothermal spheres in general FRW cosmological models with dark energy component(s). We also present the kinematical and dynamical properties of these kinds of cosmological models and calculate the age of the universe and the distance measures, which are often used in classical cosmological tests. In some cases we are able to give formulae that are simpler than those found elsewhere in the literature, which could make the cosmological tests for dark energy component(s) more convenient.Comment: 14 pages, no figure, Latex fil

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 $H_0$. 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 ($z_l$, $z_s$) = (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$\times 10^{10}$, 1.2$\times 10^{11}$, 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 $H_0$.Comment: 8 pages, 5 Postscript Figures, uses aastex. To appear in A.

The geometry of the quadruply imaged quasar PG 1115+080; implications for Ho

Time delay measurements have recently been reported for the lensed quasar PG 1115+080. These measurements can be used to derive Ho, but only if we can constrain the lensing potential. We have applied a recently developed deconvolution technique to analyse sub-arcsecond I band images of PG 1115+080, obtained at the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) and the Canada France Hawaii Telescope (CFHT). The high performance of the deconvolution code allows us to derive precise positions and magnitudes for the four lensed images of the quasar, as well as for the lensing galaxy. The new measurement of the galaxy position improves its precision by a factor of 3 and thus strengthens the constraints on the lensing potential. With the new data, a range of models incorporating some of the plausible systematic uncertainties yields Ho = 53 (+10/-7) km/s/mpc.Comment: 4 pages, LaTex file + postscript figures, Accepted for publication in AA Letter