4.7 Article

RXJ0437+00: constraining dark matter with exotic gravitational lenses

Journal

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Volume 522, Issue 1, Pages 1091-1107

Publisher

OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stad803

Keywords

gravitational lensing: strong; techniques: imaging spectroscopy; galaxies: clusters: individual: RX J0437.1+0043; dark matter

Ask authors/readers for more resources

This study presents the first strong gravitational lensing analysis of the galaxy cluster RXJ0437. By using deep MUSE observations, near-infrared spectroscopy, and Hubble Space Telescope imaging, the researchers discovered 13 multiply imaged background galaxies, including three in hyperbolic umbilic (H-U) lensing configurations. They were able to use these systems to determine the inner slope of the mass distribution and investigate the nature of dark matter.
We present the first strong-gravitational-lensing analysis of the galaxy cluster RX J0437.1+0043 (RXJ0437; z = 0.285). Newly obtained, deep MUSE observations, Keck/MOSFIRE near-infrared spectroscopy, and Hubble Space Telescope SNAPshot imaging reveal 13 multiply imaged background galaxies, three of them (at z = 1.98, 2.97, and 6.02, respectively) in hyperbolic umbilic (H-U) lensing configurations. The H-U images are located only 20-50 kpc from the cluster centre, i.e. at distances well inside the Einstein radius where images from other lens configurations are demagnified and often unobservable. Extremely rare (only one H-U lens was known previously) these systems are able to constrain the inner slope of the mass distribution - and unlike radial arcs, the presence of H-U configurations is not biased towards shallow cores. The galaxies lensed by RXJ0437 are magnified by factors ranging from 30 to 300 and (in the case of H-U systems) stretched nearly isotropically. Taking advantage of this extreme magnification, we demonstrate how the source galaxies in H-U systems can be used to probe for small-scale (similar to 10(9) M-circle dot) substructures, providing additional insight into the nature of dark matter.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.7
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available