Robert Armstrong

The serendipitous observation of a gravitationally lensed galaxy at z = 0.9057 from the Blanco Cosmology Survey: the Elliot Arc

We report on the serendipitous discovery in the Blanco Cosmology Survey (BCS) imaging data of a z = 0.9057 galaxy that is being strongly lensed by a massive galaxy cluster at a redshift of z = 0.3838. The lens (BCS J2352–5452) was discovered while examining i- and z-band images being acquired in 2006 October during a BCS observing run. Follow-up spectroscopic observations with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph instrument on the Gemini-South 8 m telescope confirmed the lensing nature of this system. Using weak-plus-strong lensing, velocity dispersion, cluster richness N 200, and fitting to a Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) cluster mass density profile, we have made three independent estimates of the mass M 200 which are all very consistent with each other. The combination of the results from the three methods gives M 200 = (5.1 ± 1.3) × 1014 M ☉, which is fully consistent with the individual measurements. The final NFW concentration c 200 from the combined fit is c 200 = 5.4+1.4 – 1.1. We have compared our measurements of M 200 and c 200 with predictions for (1) clusters from ΛCDM simulations, (2) lensing-selected clusters from simulations, and (3) a real sample of cluster lenses. We find that we are most compatible with the predictions for ΛCDM simulations for lensing clusters, and we see no evidence based on this one system for an increased concentration compared to ΛCDM. Finally, using the flux measured from the [O II]3727 line we have determined the star formation rate of the source galaxy and find it to be rather modest given the assumed lens magnification.