It was not entirely clear at the beginning, though, whether the two quasar images really were an illusion provided by curved space-time - or rather physical twins. But intensive observations soon confirmed the almost identical spectra. The intervening ``lensing'' galaxy was found, and the ``supporting'' cluster was identified as well. Later very similar lightcurves of the two images (modulo offsets in time and magnitude) confirmed this system beyond any doubt as a bona fide gravitational lens.
By now about two dozen multiply-imaged quasar systems have
been found, plus another ten good candidates (updated tables of
multiply-imaged quasars and gravitational lens candidates are
provided, e.g., by the CASTLE group [56]).
This is not really an exceedingly large number, considering a 20 year effort to find lensed quasars. The reasons for this ``modest'' success rate are:
Gravitationally lensed quasars come in a variety of classes: double, triple and quadruple systems; symmetric and asymmetric image configurations are known.
For an overview of the geometry of multiply-imaged quasar
systems, see the collection of images found at [127].
A recurring problem connected with double quasars is the question whether they are two images of a single source or rather a physical association of two objects (with three or more images it is more and more likely that it is lensed system). Few systems are as well established as the double quasar Q0957+561; but many are considered ``safe'' lenses as well. Criteria for ``fair'', ``good'', or ``excellent'' lensed quasar candidates comprise the following:
For most of the known multiple quasar systems, only some of the above criteria are fully confirmed. And there are also good reasons not to require perfect agreement with this list. For example, the lensing galaxy could be superposed to one quasar image and make the quasar appear extended; color/spectra could be affected by dust absorption in the lensing galaxy and appear not identical; the lens could be too faint to be detectable (or even a real dark lens?); the quasar could be variable on time scales shorter than the time delay; microlensing can affect the lightcurves of the images differently. Hence, it is not easy to say how many gravitationally lensed quasar systems exist. The answer depends on the amount of certainty one requires. In a recent compilation, Keeton and Kochanek [89] put together 29 quasars as lenses or lens candidates in three probability ``classes''.
Gravitationally lensed quasar systems are studied individually in great detail to get a better understanding of both lens and source (so that, e.g., a measurement of the time delay can be used to determine the Hubble constant). As an ensemble, the lens systems are also analysed statistically in order to get information about the population of lenses (and quasars) in the universe, their distribution in distance (i.e. cosmic time) and mass, and hence about the cosmological model (more about that in Section 4.6). Here we will have a close look on one particularly well investigated system.
In the optical light, Q0957+561 appears as two point images of
roughly 17 mag (R band) separated by 6.1 arcseconds (see
Figure
6). The spectra of the two quasars reveal both redshifts to be
. Between the two images, not quite on the connecting line, the
lensing galaxy (with redshift
) appears as a fuzzy patch close to the component B. This galaxy
is part of a cluster of galaxies at about the same redshift. This
is the reason for the relatively large separation for a
galaxy-type lens (typical galaxies with masses of
produce splitting angles of only about one arcsecond, see
Equation (10
)). In this lens system, the mass in the galaxy cluster helps to
increase the deflection angles to this large separation.
A recent image of Q0957+561 taken with the MERLIN radio
telescope is shown in Figure
7
. The positions of the two point-like objects in this radio
observation coincide with the optical sources. There is no radio
emission detected at the position of the galaxy center, i.e. the
lensing galaxy is radio-quiet. But this also tells us that a
possible third image of the quasar must be very faint, below the
detection limit of all the radio observations
. In Figure
7, a ``jet'' can be seen emerging from image A (at the top). It is
not unusual for radio quasars to have such a ``jet'' feature.
This is most likely matter that is ejected from the central
engine of the quasar with very high speed along the polar axis of
the central black hole. The reason that this jet is seen only
around one image is that it lies outside the caustic region in
the source plane, which marks the part that is multiply imaged.
Only the compact core of the quasar lies inside the caustic and
is doubly imaged.
As stated above, a virtual ``proof'' of a gravitational lens
system is a measurement of the ``time delay''
, the relative shift of the light curves of the two or more
images,
and
, so that
. Any intrinsic fluctuation of the quasar shows up in both
images, in general with an overall offset in apparent magnitude
and an offset in time.
Q0957+561 is the first lens system in which the time delay was
firmly established. After a decade long attempt and various
groups claiming either of two favorable values [135,
141,
159,
192], Kundic et al. [102] confirmed the shorter of the two (cf.\ Figure
8
; see also Oscoz et al. [129] and Schild & Thomson [160]):
With a model of the lens system, the time delay can be used to
determine the Hubble constant
. In Q0957+561, the lensing action is done by an individual
galaxy plus an associated galaxy cluster (to which the galaxy
belongs). This provides some additional problems, a degeneracy in
the determination of the Hubble constant [65]. The appearance of the double quasar system including the time
delay could be identical for different partitions of the matter
between galaxy and cluster, but the derived value of the Hubble
constant could be quite different. However, this degeneracy can
be ``broken'', once the focussing contribution of the galaxy
cluster can be determined independently. And the latter has been
attempted recently [58]. The resulting value for the Hubble constant [102] obtained by employing a detailed lens model by Grogin and
Narayan [70] and the measured velocity dispersion of the lensing
galaxy [57] is
where the uncertainty comprises the 95% confidence level.
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Gravitational Lensing in Astronomy
Joachim Wambsganss http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-1998-12 © Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. ISSN 1433-8351 Problems/Comments to livrev@aei-potsdam.mpg.de |