We introduce a novel statistical way of analyzing the projected mass distribution in galaxy lenses based solely on the angular distribution of images in quads around the lens center. The method requires the knowledge of the lens center location, but the images' distances from the lens center are not used at all. If the images of a quad are numbered in order of arrival time, θ_1 through θ_4, and θ_{ij} is the angle between images i and j, then we define the 'bisector' plane whose axes are linear combinations of θ_{23} and θ_{14}. The bisector plane of a given lens contains all the quads produced by the lens. We show empirically that all two-fold symmetric lenses with convex, i.e. non-wavy or petal-like isodensity contours are identical in the bisector plane of their quads. We also study lenses with twisting isodensity contours, lumpy substructure, etc. Our results suggest that to reproduce the general characteristics of the observed quad population, kpc-scale substructure must be a common feature of galaxy lenses.
Since dark matter clusters and groups may have substructure, we have examined the sextupole content of Hubble images looking for a curvature signature in background galaxies that would arise from galaxy-galaxy lensing. We describe techniques for extracting and analyzing sextupole and higher weakly lensed moments. Indications of substructure, via spatial clumping of curved background galaxies, were observed in the image of CL0024 and then surprisingly in both Hubble deep fields. We estimate the dark cluster masses in the deep field. Alternatives to a lensing hypothesis appear improbable, but be…
We argue that individual images in multiple-image QSOs could easily have substructure at the level of $0.1''$ (i.e., unresolvable even with HST); microlensing within such substructure would cause centroid shifts, observable even from the ground as pseudo proper motions. We present a model of the four-image system 2237+0305 in which Image B shows such ``improper motions" of order of $0.01''$ over a few years.
We have observed the quadruply lensed quasar 1RXS J1131-1231 with the integral field spectrograph mode of the Kyoto Tridimensional Spectrograph II mounted on the Subaru telescope. Its field of view has covered simultaneously the three brighter lensed images A, B, and C, which are known to exhibit anomalous flux ratios in their continuum emission. We have found that the [OIII] line flux ratios among these lensed images are consistent with those predicted by smooth-lens models. The absence of both microlensing and millilensing effects on this [OIII] narrow line region sets important limits on th…
In this work we investigate the gravitationally lensed system B1422+231. High--quality VLBI image positions, fluxes and shapes as well as an optical HST lens galaxy position are used. First, two simple and smooth models for the lens galaxy are applied to fit observed image positions and fluxes; no even remotely acceptable model was found. Such models also do not accurately reproduce the image shapes. In order to fit the data successfully, mass substructure has to be added to the lens, and its level is estimated. To explore expectations about the level of substructure in galaxies and its influe…
It has been argued that the flux anomalies detected in gravitationally lensed QSOs are evidence for substructures in the foreground lensing haloes. In this paper we investigate this issue in greater detail focusing on the Cusp relation which corresponds to images of a source located to the cusp of the inner caustic curve. We use numerical simulations combined with a Monte Carlo approach to study the effects of the expected power law distribution of substructures within LCDM haloes on the multiple images. Generally, the high number of anomalous flux ratios in the cusp configurations is unlikely…
Image flux ratio anomalies have been attributed to substructures within the gravitational lens and to small mass halos (M <~ 10^10 Msun) in intergalactic space. In this paper, analytic calculations are presented that help in the understanding of how intergalactic halos affect magnification ratios. It is found that intergalactic halos can produce anomalies at a similar level to those that are observed. Intergalactic halos with masses <10^10 Msun are expected to cause relative deflections between images of order 10 milliarcseconds, which are then magnified by the primary lens. They will also cau…
Recently, ``CDM crisis'' is under discussion. The main point of this crisis is that number of substructures presented by cosmological N-body simulations based on CDM scenario for structure formation is much larger than observed substructures. Therefore, it is crucial for this crisis to discriminate whether expected number of CDM substructures really exist but non-luminous or do not exist. In this paper, we present a new idea to detect such invisible substructures by utilizing a gravitational lensing. Here, we consider quasars that are gravitationally lensed by a foreground galaxy. A substructu…
We investigate the extended source size effects on gravitational lensing in which a lens consists of a smooth potential and small mass clumps (``substructure lensing''). We first consider a lens model that consists of a clump modeled as a singular isothermal sphere (SIS) and a primary lens modeled as an external background shear and convergence. For this simple model, we derive analytic formulae for (de)magnification of circularly symmetric top-hat sources with three types of parity for their lensed images, namely, positive, negative, and doubly negative parities. Provided that the source size…
Multiply-imaged quasar lenses can be used to constrain the substructure mass fraction in galaxy-sized dark matter halos via anomalous flux ratios in lensed images. The flux ratios, however, can be affected by both the substructure in the lens halo and by isolated small-mass halos along the entire line-of-sight to the lensed source. While lensing by dark matter clumps near the lens galaxy is more efficient than elsewhere, the cumulative effect of all objects along the line-of-sight could be significant. Here we estimate the potential contribution of isolated clumps to the substructure lensing s…
Gravitationally lensed systems with multiply imaged quasars are an excellent tool for studying the properties of distant galaxies. In particular, they provide the most accurate mass measures for the lensing galaxy. The system B1422+231 is a well studied example of a quadruply imaged quasar, with high-quality VLBI data available. Very accurate data on image positions, fluxes and deconvolved image sizes provide good constraints for lensing models. We discuss here the failure of smooth models in fitting the data. Since it is intuitively clear that the mass of a lens galaxy is not a smooth entity,…
The amount of mass in small, dark matter clumps within galaxies (substructure) is an important test of cold dark matter. One approach to measuring the substructure mass fraction is to analyze the fluxes of images that have been strongly lensed by a galaxy. Flux ratios between images that are anomalous with respect to smooth (no substructure) models have previously suggested that there is a greater amount of substructure than found in dark matter simulations. One measure of anomalous flux ratios is parity dependence -- that the fluxes of different images of a source are perturbed differently. I…
In recent years, gravitational lensing has been used as a means to detect substructure in galaxy-sized halos, via anomalous flux ratios in quadruply-imaged lenses. In addition to causing anomalous flux ratios, substructure may also perturb the positions of lensed images at observable levels. In this paper, we numerically investigate the scale of such astrometric perturbations using realistic models of substructure distributions. Substructure distributions that project clumps near the Einstein radius of the lens result in perturbations that are the least degenerate with the best-fit smooth macr…
MG 2016+112 is a quadruply imaged lens system with two complete images A and B and a pair of merging partial images in region C as seen in the radio. The merging images are found to violate the expected mirror symmetry. This indicates an astrometric anomaly which could only be of gravitational origin and could arise due to substructure in the environment or line-of-sight of the lens galaxy. We present new high resolution multi-frequency VLBI observations at 1.7, 5 and 8.4 GHz. Three new components are detected in the new VLBI imaging of both the lensed images A and B. The expected opposite par…
We present a statistical study of the effects induced by substructures on the deflection potential of dark matter halos in the strong lensing regime. This investigation is based on the pertubative solution around the Einstein radius (Alard 2007) in which all the information on the deflection potential is specified by only a pair of one-dimensional functions on this ring. Using direct comparison with ray-tracing solutions, we found that the iso-contours of lensed images predicted by the pertubative solution is reproduced with a mean error on their radial extension of less than 1% - in units of …
We demonstrate that the flux ratios of 4-image lensed quasars provide a powerful means of probing the small scale structure of Dark Matter (DM) halos. A family of smooth lens models can precisely predict certain combinations of flux ratios using only the positions of the images and lens as inputs. Using 5 observed lens systems we show that real galaxies {\it cannot} be described by smooth singular isothermal ellipsoids, nor by the more general elliptical power-law potentials. Large scale distortions from the elliptical models can not yet be ruled out. Nevertheless we find, by comparing with si…
We study the statistical properties of magnification perturbations by substructures in strong lensed systems using linear perturbation theory and an analytical substructure model including tidal truncation and a continuous substructure mass spectrum. We demonstrate that magnification perturbations are dominated by perturbers found within a tidal radius of an image, and that sizable magnification perturbations may arise from small, coherent contributions from several substructures within the lens halo. We find that the root-mean-square (rms) fluctuation of the magnification perturbation is 10% …
The magnifications of the images in a strong gravitational lens system are sensitive to small mass clumps in the lens potential; this effect has been used to infer the amount of substructure in galaxy dark matter halos. I study the theory of substructure lensing to identify important general features, and to compute analytic cross sections that will facilitate further theoretical studies. I show that the problem of a clump anywhere along the line of sight to a lens can be mapped onto an equivalent problem of a clump in a simple convergence and shear field; clumps at arbitrary redshifts are the…
We present 426 epochs of optical monitoring data spanning 1000 days from December 2003 to June 2006 for the gravitationally lensed quasar SDSS J1004+4112. The time delay between the A and B images is 38.4+/-2.0 days in the expected sense that B leads A and the overall time ordering is C-B-A-D-E. The measured delay invalidates all published models. The models failed because they neglected the perturbations from cluster member galaxies. Models including the galaxies can fit the data well, but strong conclusions about the cluster mass distribution should await the measurement of the longer, and l…
The cold dark matter (CDM) structure formation model predicts that about 5-10 percent of a typical galactic halo of mass $\sim 10^{12} \ms$ is in substructures with masses $\lesssim 10^8 \ms$. To directly detect such substructures, we propose to observe dust continuum emission from a strongly lensed QSO-host galaxy using a large submillimeter interferometer array with a high angular resolution of $\sim 0.01$arcsec such as the planned Atacama Large Submillimeter Array (ALMA). To assess their observational feasibility, we numerically simulate millilensing of an extended circular source by a CDM …
We report the discovery of the two-image gravitationally lensed quasar SDSS J133222.62+034739.9 (SDSS J1332+0347) with an image separation of Delta_theta=1.14". This system consists of a source quasar at z_s=1.445 and a lens galaxy at z_l=0.191. The agreement of the luminosity, ellipticity and position angle of the lens galaxy with those expected from lens model confirms the lensing hypothesis.
We analyse the number density and radial distribution of substructures and satellite galaxies using cosmological simulations that follow the gas dynamics of a baryonic component, including shock heating, radiative cooling and star formation within the hierarchical concordance LCDM model. We find that the dissipation of the baryons greatly enhances the survival of subhaloes, expecially in the galaxy core, resulting in a radial distribution of satellite galaxies that closely follows the overall mass distribution in the inner part of the halo. Hydrodynamical simulations are necessary to resolve t…
Galactic sized gravitational lenses are simulated by combining a cosmological N-body simulation and models for the baryonic component of the galaxy. The lens caustics, critical curves, image locations and magnification ratios are calculated by ray-shooting on an adaptive grid. When the source is near a cusp in a smooth lens' caustic the sum of the magnifications of the three closest images should be close to zero. It is found that in the observed cases this sum is generally too large to be consistent with the simulations implying that there is not enough substructure in the simulations. This s…
We present an image of the redshift 2.3 IRAS source FSC10214+4724 at 0.8 microns obtained with the HST WFPC2 Planetary Camera. The source appears as an unresolved (< 0.06") arc 0.7" long, with significant substructure along its length. The arc is centered near an elliptical galaxy 1.18" to the north. An unresolved component 100 times fainter than the arc is clearly detected on the opposite side of this galaxy. The most straightforward interpretation is that FSC 10214+4724 is gravitationally lensed by the foreground elliptical galaxy, with the faint component a counterimage of the IRAS source. …
We report the discovery of a new double image gravitational lens system B1030+074 which was found during the Jodrell Bank - VLA Astrometric Survey (JVAS). We have collected extensive radio data on the system using the VLA, MERLIN, the EVN and the VLBA and optical observations using WFPC2 on the HST. The lensed images are separated by 1.56 arcseconds and their flux density ratio at centimetric wavelengths is approximately 14:1 although the ratio is slightly frequency dependent and the images appear to be time variable. The HST pictures show both the lensed images and the lensing galaxy close to…
We present a study of the lens properties of quadruply imaged systems, lensed by numerically simulated galaxies. We investigate a simulated elliptical and disc galaxy drawn from high resolution simulations of galaxy formation in a concordance $Λ$CDM universe. The simulations include the effects of gas dynamics, star formation and feedback processes. Flux-ratio anomalies observed in strong gravitational lensing potentially provide an indicator for the presence of mass substructure in lens galaxies as predicted from CDM simulations. We particularly concentrate on the prediction that, for an idea…
We present new redshifts and positions for 635 galaxies in nine rich clusters containing Wide-Angle Tailed (WAT) radio galaxies. Combined with existing data, we now have a sample of 18 WAT-containing clusters with more than 10 redshifts. This sample contains a substantial portion of the WAT clusters in the VLA 20 cm survey of Abell clusters, including 75% of WAT clusters in the complete survey (z<=0.09), and 20% of WAT clusters with z>0.09. It is a representative sample which should not contain biases other than selection by radio morphology. We graphically present the new data using histogram…
We present mid-infrared imaging at 11.7 mu m for the quadruple lens systems, PG1115+080 and B1422+231, using the cooled mid-infrared camera and spectrometer (COMICS) attached on the Subaru telescope. These lensed QSOs are characterized by their anomalous optical and radio flux ratios as obtained for (A1, A2) images of PG1115+080 and (A, B, C) images of B1422+231, respectively, i.e., such flux ratios are hardly reproduced by lens models with smooth mass distribution. Our mid-infrared observations for these images have revealed that the mid-infrared flux ratio A2/A1 of PG1115+080 is virtually co…
We investigate the intrinsic alignments of dark halo substructures with their host halo major-axis orientations both analytically and numerically. Analytically, we derive the probability density distribution of the angles between the minor axes of the substructures and the major axes of their host halos from the physical principles, under the assumption that the substructure alignment on galaxy scale is a consequence of the tidal fields of the host halo gravitational potential. Numerically, we use a sample of four cluster-scale halos and their galaxy-scale substructures from recent high-resolu…
We study the recently discovered gravitational lens SDSS J1004+4112, the first quasar lensed by a cluster of galaxies. It consists of four images with a maximum separation of 14.62''. The system has been confirmed as a lensed quasar at z=1.734 on the basis of deep imaging and spectroscopic follow-up observations. We present color-magnitude relations for galaxies near the lens plus spectroscopy of three central cluster members, which unambiguously confirm that a cluster at z=0.68 is responsible for the large image separation. We find a wide range of lens models consistent with the data, but the…
Spectral differences between lensed quasar image components are common. Since lensing is intrinsically achromatic, these differences are typically explained as the effect of either microlensing, or as light path time delays sampling intrinsic quasar spectral variability. Here we advance a novel third hypothesis: some spectral differences are due to small line-of-sight differences through quasar disk wind outflows. In particular, we propose that variable spectral differences seen only in component A of the widest separation lens SDSSJ1004+4112 are due to differential absorption along the sightl…
