Issue |
A&A
Volume 516, June-July 2010
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | L12 | |
Number of page(s) | 6 | |
Section | Letters | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201014376 | |
Published online | 16 July 2010 |
Letter to the Editor
First case of strong gravitational lensing by a QSO: SDSS J0013+1523 at z = 0.120*
1
Laboratoire d'astrophysique, École Polytechnique
Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Observatoire de Sauverny,
1290 Versoix, Switzerland e-mail: malte.tewes@epfl.ch
2
Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
3
Astronomisches Rechen-Institut
am Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg,
Mönchhofstrasse 12-14, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
Received:
8
March
2010
Accepted:
7
June
2010
We present the first case of strong gravitational lensing by a QSO: SDSS J0013+1523
at z = 0.120. The discovery is the result of a systematic search for emission lines redshifted behind
QSOs, among 22 298 spectra of the SDSS data release 7. Apart from the z = 0.120
spectral features of the foreground QSO, the spectrum of SDSS J0013+1523 also displays
the [O ii] and Hβ emission lines and the [O iii] doublet, all at the same redshift, z = 0.640.
Using sharp Keck adaptive optics K-band images obtained using laser guide stars, we unveil two objects
within a radius of 2” from the QSO. Deep Keck optical spectroscopy clearly confirms one of these
objects at z = 0.640 and shows traces of the [O iii] emission line of the second object, also at z = 0.640.
Lens modeling suggests that they represent two images of the same z = 0.640
emission-line galaxy. Our Keck spectra also allow us to measure the redshift of an intervening galaxy at
z = 0.394, located 3.2”, away from the line of sight to the QSO.
If the z = 0.120 QSO host galaxy is modeled as a singular isothermal sphere, its mass within the
Einstein radius is ME(r < 1 h-1 kpc) = 2.16 × 1010 h-1 and its velocity dispersion
is σSIS = 169 km s-1. This is about 1-σ away from the velocity dispersion estimated from the
width of the QSO Hβ emission line, σ*(MBH)= 124 ± 47 km s-1.
Deep optical HST imaging will be necessary to constrain
the total radial mass profile of the QSO host galaxy using the detailed shape of the lensed source.
This first case of a QSO acting as a strong lens on a more distant object opens new directions
in the study of QSO host galaxies.
Key words: gravitational lensing: strong / quasars: individual: SDSS J0013+1523 / dark matter
Some of the data presented herein were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. This program also makes use of the data collected by the SDSS collaboration and released in DR7.
© ESO, 2010
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