We identify a strong lensing galaxy in the cluster IRC 0218 (also known as XMM-LSS J02182−05102) that is spectroscopically confirmed to be at z=1.62, making it the highest-redshift strong lens galaxy known. The lens is one of the two brightest cluster galaxies and lenses a background source galaxy into an arc and a counterimage. With Hubble Space Telescope (HST) grism and Keck/LRIS spectroscopy, we measure the source redshift to be zS=2.26. Using HST imaging in ACS/F475W, ACS/F814W, WFC3/F125W, and WFC3/F160W, we model the lens mass distribution with an elliptical power-law profile and account for the effects of the cluster halo and nearby galaxies. The Einstein radius is θE=0.38−0.01+0.02" (3.2−0.1+0.2 kpc) and the total enclosed mass is Mtot(<θE)=1.8−0.1+0.2×1011M⊙. We estimate that the cluster environment contributes ∼10% of this total mass. Assuming a Chabrier IMF, the dark matter fraction within θE is fDMChab=0.3−0.3+0.1, while a Salpeter IMF is marginally inconsistent with the enclosed mass (fDMSalp=−0.3−0.5+0.2). The total magnification of the source is μtot=2.1−0.3+0.4. The source has at least one bright compact region offset from the source center. Emission from Lyα and [O III] are likely to probe different regions in the source.
@article{arxiv.1405.3661,
title = {Discovery of a Strong Lensing Galaxy Embedded in a Cluster at z = 1.62},
author = {Kenneth C. Wong and Kim-Vy H. Tran and Sherry H. Suyu and Ivelina G. Momcheva and Gabriel B. Brammer and Mark Brodwin and Anthony H. Gonzalez and Aleksi Halkola and Glenn G. Kacprzak and Anton M. Koekemoer and Casey J. Papovich and Gregory H. Rudnick},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1405.3661},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication in ApJL; emulateapj format; 6 pages, 3 figures, 1 table