Unlensing HST Observations of the Einstein Ring 1RXS J1131-1231: A Bayesian Analysis

TL;DR

This paper employs a Bayesian method to reconstruct the source and lens in the gravitational lens system RXS J1131-1231, revealing detailed structure of the host galaxy and providing insights into the lensing mass distribution.

Contribution

It introduces a Bayesian reconstruction technique that achieves high-resolution source imaging and compares the information content of extended versus quasar images for lens modeling.

Findings

Resolved source structure down to 0.045 arcseconds

Revealed complex host galaxy features including bright substructures

Extended images provide more information about the lens than quasar images

Abstract

We present a source and lens reconstruction for the optical Einstein ring gravitational lens system RXS J1131-1231. We resolve detail in the source, which is the host galaxy of a $z=0.658$ quasar, down to a resolution of 0.045 arc seconds (this is the size of the smallest conclusively resolved structures, rather than the pixel scale), using a Bayesian technique with a realistic model for the prior information. The source reconstruction reveals a substantial amount of complex structure in the host galaxy, which is $\sim$ 8 kpc in extent and contains several bright compact substructures, with the quasar source residing in one of these bright substructures. Additionally, we recover the mass distribution of the lensing galaxy, assuming a simply-parameterised model, using information from both the quasar images and the extended images. This allows a direct comparison of the amount of information about the lens that is provided by the quasar images in comparison to the extended images. In this system, we find that the extended images provide significantly more information about the lens than the quasar images alone, especially if we do not include prior constraints on the central position of the lens.