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A DETAILED GRAVITATIONAL LENS MODEL BASED ON SUBMILLIMETER ARRAY AND KECK ADAPTIVE OPTICS IMAGING OF A HERSCHEL-ATLAS SUBMILLIMETER GALAXY AT z=4.243
Journal article   Peer reviewed

A DETAILED GRAVITATIONAL LENS MODEL BASED ON SUBMILLIMETER ARRAY AND KECK ADAPTIVE OPTICS IMAGING OF A HERSCHEL-ATLAS SUBMILLIMETER GALAXY AT z=4.243

R S Bussmann, M A Gurwell, Hai Fu, DJB Smith, S Dye, R Auld, M Baes, A J Baker, D Bonfield, A Cava, …
The Astrophysical journal, Vol.756(2), 134
09/10/2012
DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/756/2/134

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Abstract

We present high-spatial resolution imaging obtained with the Submillimeter Array (SMA) at 880 μm and the Keck adaptive optics (AO) system at the KS-band of a gravitationally lensed submillimeter galaxy (SMG) at z = 4.243 discovered in the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey. The SMA data (angular resolution ≈0farcs6) resolve the dust emission into multiple lensed images, while the Keck AO KS-band data (angular resolution ≈0farcs1) resolve the lens into a pair of galaxies separated by 0farcs3. We present an optical spectrum of the foreground lens obtained with the Gemini-South telescope that provides a lens redshift of zlens = 0.595 ± 0.005. We develop and apply a new lens modeling technique in the visibility plane that shows that the SMG is magnified by a factor of μ = 4.1 ± 0.2 and has an intrinsic infrared (IR) luminosity of LIR = (2.1 ± 0.2) × 1013 L☉. We measure a half-light radius of the background source of rs = 4.4 ± 0.5 kpc which implies an IR luminosity surface density of ΣIR = (3.4 ± 0.9) × 1011 L☉ kpc−2, a value that is typical of z > 2 SMGs but significantly lower than IR luminous galaxies at z ∼ 0. The two lens galaxies are compact (rlens ≈ 0.9 kpc) early-types with Einstein radii of θE1 = 0.57 ± 0.01 and θE2 = 0.40 ± 0.01 that imply masses of Mlens1 = (7.4 ± 0.5) × 1010 M☉ and Mlens2 = (3.7 ± 0.3) × 1010 M☉. The two lensing galaxies are likely about to undergo a dissipationless merger, and the mass and size of the resultant system should be similar to other early-type galaxies at z ∼ 0.6. This work highlights the importance of high spatial resolution imaging in developing models of strongly lensed galaxies discovered by Herschel.
Physical Sciences 0201 Astronomical And Space Sciences 0305 Organic Chemistry 0306 Physical Chemistry (Incl. Structural) ALL-SKY SURVEY astro-ph.CO astro-ph.GA Astronomy & Astrophysics BILLION YEARS DEEP-FIELD-SOUTH DEGREE EXTRAGALACTIC SURVEY galaxies: evolution galaxies: fundamental parameters galaxies: high-redshift gravitational lensing: strong LUMINOSITY FUNCTIONS MOLECULAR GAS Science & Technology SCIENCE DEMONSTRATION PHASE SPACE-TELESCOPE MORPHOLOGIES STAR-FORMATION HISTORY ULTRALUMINOUS INFRARED GALAXIES

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