H0LiCOW-II. Spectroscopic survey and galaxy-group identification of the strong gravitational lens system HE 0435-1223

Galaxies located in the environment or along the line of sight towards gravitational lenses can significantly affect lensing observables, and can lead to systematic errors on the measurement of H-0 from the time-delay technique. We present the results of a systematic spectroscopic identification of the galaxies in the field of view of the lensed quasar HE 0435-1223 using the W. M. Keck, Gemini and ESO-Very Large telescopes. Our new catalogue triples the number of known galaxy redshifts in the direct vicinity of the lens, expanding to 102 the number of measured redshifts for galaxies separated by less than 3 arcmin from the lens. We complement our catalogue with literature data to gather redshifts up to 15 arcmin from the lens, and search for galaxy groups or clusters projected towards HE 0435-1223. We confirm that the lens is a member of a small group that includes at least 12 galaxies, and find 8 other group candidates near the line of sight of the lens. The flexion shift, namely the shift of lensed images produced by high-order perturbation of the lens potential, is calculated for each galaxy/group and used to identify which objects produce the largest perturbation of the lens potential. This analysis demonstrates that (i) at most three of the five brightest galaxies projected within 12 arcsec of the lens need to be explicitly used in the lens models, and (ii) the groups can be treated in the lens model as an external tidal field (shear) contribution.

HOLiCOW - IV. Lens mass model of HE 0435-1223 and blind measurement of its time-delay distance for cosmology

Vivien François Bonvin, Frédéric Courbin

Strong gravitational lenses with measured time delays between the multiple images allow a direct measurement of the time-delay distance to the lens, and thus a measure of cosmological parameters, particularly the Hubble constant, H-0. We present a blind lens model analysis of the quadruply imaged quasar lens HE 0435-1223 using deep Hubble Space Telescope imaging, updated time-delay measurements from the COSmological MOnitoring of GRAvItational Lenses (COSMOGRAIL), a measurement of the velocity dispersion of the lens galaxy based on Keck data, and a characterization of the mass distribution along the line of sight. HE 0435-1223 is the third lens analysed as a part of the H-0 Lenses in COSMOGRAIL's Wellspring (HOLiCOW) project. We account for various sources of systematic uncertainty, including the detailed treatment of nearby perturbers, the parametrization of the galaxy light and mass profile, and the regions used for lens modelling. We constrain the effective time delay distance to be D-Delta t = 2612(191)(+208) Mpc, a precision of 7.6 per cent. From HE 0435-1223 alone, we infer a Hubble constant of H-0 = 73.1(6.0)(+5.7) km s(-1) Mpc(-1) assuming a flat ACDM cosmology. The cosmographic inference based on the three lenses analysed by HOLiCOW to date is presented in a companion paper (HOLiCOW Paper V).

Oxford Univ Press2017

A new window of exploration in the mass spectrum: strong lensing by galaxy groups in the SL2S

Jean-Paul Richard Kneib, Johan Richard

The existence of strong lensing systems with Einstein radii covering the full mass spectrum, from similar to 1-2 '' (produced by galaxy scale dark matter haloes) to >10 '' (produced by galaxy cluster scale haloes) have long been predicted. Many lenses with Einstein radii around 1-2 '' and above 10 '' have been reported but very few in between. In this article, we present a sample of 13 strong lensing systems with Einstein radii in the range 3 ''-8 '' (or image separations in the range 6 ''-16 ''), i.e. systems produced by galaxy group scale dark matter haloes. This group sample spans a redshift range from 0.3 to 0.8. This opens a new window of exploration in the mass spectrum, around 10(13)-10(14) M-circle dot, a crucial range for understanding the transition between galaxies and galaxy clusters, and a range that have not been extensively probed with lensing techniques. These systems constitute a subsample of the Strong Lensing Legacy Survey (SL2S), which aims to discover strong lensing systems in the Canada France Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS). The sample is based on a search over 100 square degrees, implying a number density of similar to 0.13 groups per square degree. Our analysis is based on multi-colour CFHTLS images complemented with Hubble Space Telescope imaging and ground based spectroscopy. Large scale properties are derived from both the light distribution of elliptical galaxies group members and weak lensing of the faint background galaxy population. On small scales, the strong lensing analysis yields Einstein radii between 2.5 '' and 8 ''. On larger scales, strong lens centres coincide with peaks of light distribution, suggesting that light traces mass. Most of the luminosity maps have complicated shapes, implying that these intermediate mass structures may be dynamically young. A weak lensing signal is detected for 6 groups and upper limits are provided for 6 others. Fitting the reduced shear with a Singular Isothermal Sphere, we find sigma(SIS) similar to 500 km s(-1) with large error bars and an upper limit of similar to 900 km s(-1) for the whole sample (except for the highest redshift structure whose velocity dispersion is consistent with that of a galaxy cluster). The mass-to-light ratio for the sample is found to be M/L-i similar to 250 (solar units, corrected for evolution), with an upper limit of 500. This compares with mass-to-light ratios of small groups (with sigma(SIS) similar to 300 km s(-1)) and galaxy clusters (with sigma(SIS) > 1000 km s(-1)), thus bridging the gap between these mass scales. The group sample released in this paper will be complemented with other observations, providing a unique sample to study this important intermediate mass range in further detail.

2009

Quasi-stellar objects acting as potential strong gravitational lenses in the SDSS-III BOSS survey

Frédéric Courbin, Timothée Guy Olivier Delubac, Jean-Paul Richard Kneib

We present a sample of 12 quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) that potentially act as strong gravitational lenses on background emission line galaxies (ELG) or Lyman-alpha emitters (LAEs) selected through a systematic search of the 297 301 QSOs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)-III Data Release 12. Candidates were identified by looking for compound spectra, where emission lines at a redshift larger than that of the quasar can be identified in the residuals after a QSO spectral template is subtracted from the observed spectra. The narrow diameter of BOSS fibers (2 '') then ensures that the object responsible for the additional emission lines must lie close to the line of sight of the QSO and hence provides a high probability of lensing. Among the 12 candidates identified, nine have definite evidence for the presence of a background ELG identified by at least four higher-redshift nebular emission lines. The remaining three probable candidates present a strong asymmetrical emission line attributed to a background Lyman-alpha emitter (LAE). The QSO-ELG (QSO-LAE) lens candidates have QSO lens redshifts in the range 0.24 less than or similar to Z(QSO) less than or similar to 0.66 (0.75 less than or similar to Z(QSO) less than or similar to 1.23 ) and background galaxy redshifts in the range 0.48 less than or similar to Z(S,)(ELG) less than or similar to 0.94 (2.17 less than or similar to Z(S,LAE )less than or similar to 4.48). We show that the algorithmic search is complete at >90% for QSO-ELG systems, whereas it falls at 40-60% for QSO-LAE, depending on the redshift of the source. Upon confirmation of the lensing nature of the systems, this sample may quadruple the number of known QSOs acting as strong lenses. We have determined the completeness of our search, which allows future studies to compute lensing probabilities of galaxies by QSOs and differentiate between different QSO models. Future imaging of the full sample and lens modelling offers a unique approach to study and constrain key properties of QSOs.