The Sloan Lens ACS Survey. XIII. Discovery of 40 New Galaxy-scale Strong Lenses

Author(s): Yiping Shu, Joel R. Brownstein, Adam S. Bolton, Oliver Czoske
Abstract: We present the full sample of 118 galaxy-scale strong-lens candidates in the Sloan Lens ACS (SLACS) Survey for the Masses (S4TM) Survey, which are spectroscopically selected from the final data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Follow-up Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging observations confirm that 40 candidates are definite strong lenses with multiple lensed images. The foreground-lens galaxies are found to be early-type galaxies (ETGs) at redshifts 0.06–0.44, and background sources are emission-line galaxies at redshifts 0.22–1.29. As an extension of the SLACS Survey, the S4TM Survey is the first attempt to preferentially search for strong-lens systems with relatively lower lens masses than those in the pre-existing strong-lens samples. By fitting HST data with a singular isothermal ellipsoid model, we find that the total projected mass within the Einstein radius of the S4TM strong-lens sample ranges from 3 × 10¹⁰ M_⊙ to 2 × 10¹¹ M_⊙. In Shu et al., we have derived the total stellar mass of the S4TM lenses to be 5 × 10¹⁰ M_⊙ to 1 × 10¹² M_⊙. Both the total enclosed mass and stellar mass of the S4TM lenses are on average almost a factor of 2 smaller than those of the SLACS lenses, which also represent the typical mass scales of the current strong-lens samples. The extended mass coverage provided by the S4TM sample can enable a direct test, with the aid of strong lensing, for transitions in scaling relations, kinematic properties, mass structure, and dark-matter content trends of ETGs at intermediate-mass scales as noted in previous studies.
Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (HST), obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by AURA, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with HST program #12210.
Organisation(s): Department of Astrophysics
External organisation(s): Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), University of Utah
Journal: The Astrophysical Journal
Volume: 851
No. of pages: 13
ISSN: 0004-637X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aa9794
Publication date: 12-2017
Peer reviewed: Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012: 103003 Astronomy, 103004 Astrophysics
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Space and Planetary Science
Portal url: https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/2c653a29-695f-4a2c-974f-610c42172073

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