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Published December 1, 2000 | Published + Accepted Version
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A new quadruple gravitational lens system: CLASS B0128+437

Phillips, P. M.
Norbury, M. A.
Koopmans, L. V. E. ORCID icon
Browne, I. W. A.
Jackson, N. J.
Wilkinson, P. N.
Biggs, A. D. ORCID icon
Blandford, R. D. ORCID icon
de Bruyn, A. G.
Fassnacht, C. D. ORCID icon
Helbig, P.
Mao, S. ORCID icon
Marlow, D. R.
Myers, S. T.
Pearson, T. J. ORCID icon
Readhead, A. C. S. ORCID icon
Rusin, D.
Xanthopoulos, E.
An error occurred while generating the citation.

Abstract

High-resolution MERLIN observations of a newly discovered four-image gravitational lens system, B0128+437, are presented. The system was found after a careful re-analysis of the entire CLASS data set. The MERLIN observations resolve four components in a characteristic quadruple-image configuration; the maximum image separation is 542 mas and the total flux density is 48 mJy at 5 GHz. A best-fitting lens model with a singular isothermal ellipsoid results in large errors in the image positions. A significantly improved fit is obtained after the addition of a shear component, suggesting that the lensing system is more complex and may consist of multiple deflectors. The integrated radio spectrum of the background source indicates that it is a gigahertz peaked spectrum source. It may therefore be possible to resolve structure within the radio images with deep VLBI observations and thus to constrain the lensing mass distribution better.

Additional Information

© 2000 RAS. Accepted 2000 September 18. Received 2000 August 30; in original form 2000 June 28. The Very Large Array is operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory which is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. MERLIN is the Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network and is a national facility operated by the University of Manchester on behalf of PPARC. This research was supported in part by the European Commission, TMR Programme, Research Network Contract ERBFMRXCT96-0034 'CERES'. PMP also thanks PPARC for the support of a studentship award.

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