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CLASS B2108+213: a new wide-separation gravitational lens system |
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| Authors: | J P McKean I W A Browne N J Jackson L V E Koopmans M A Norbury T Treu † T D York A D Biggs R D Blandford A G de Bruyn C D Fassnacht S Mao S T Myers T J Pearson P M Phillips A C S Readhead D Rusin P N Wilkinson |
| Institution: | University of Manchester, Jodrell Bank Observatory, Macclesfield, Cheshire SK11 9DL;Department of Physics, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA;Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, Postbus 800, NL-9700 AV Groningen, the Netherlands;Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA;Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe, Postbus 2, 7990 AA Dwingeloo, the Netherlands;KIPAC, Stanford University, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA;ASTRON, Postbus 2, 7990 AA Dwingeloo, the Netherlands;National Radio Astronomy Observatory, PO Box 0, Socorro, NM 87801, USA;California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA;Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, 209 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA |
| Abstract: | We present observations of CLASS B2108+213, the widest separation gravitational lens system discovered by the Cosmic Lens All-Sky Survey. Radio imaging using the VLA at 8.46 GHz and MERLIN at 5 GHz shows two compact components separated by 4.56 arcsec with a faint third component in between which we believe is emission from a lensing galaxy. 5-GHz VLBA observations reveal milliarcsecond-scale structure in the two lensed images that is consistent with gravitational lensing. Optical emission from the two lensed images and two lensing galaxies within the Einstein radius is detected in Hubble Space Telescope imaging. Furthermore, an optical gravitational arc, associated with the strongest lensed component, has been detected. Surrounding the system is a number of faint galaxies which may help explain the wide image separation. A plausible mass distribution model for CLASS B2108+213 is also presented. |
| Keywords: | gravitational lensing quasars: individual: CLASS B2108+213 cosmology: observations |