The Largest Gravitational Lens: MACS J0717.5+3745 (z=0.546)

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery and analysis of MACS J0717.5+3745, the largest known gravitational lens, with a massive, shallow profile that magnifies high-redshift objects, making it an exceptional target for studying the early universe.

Contribution

The study provides detailed measurements of the largest gravitational lens, including its size, mass, and magnification properties, highlighting its uniqueness compared to other known lenses.

Findings

Largest Einstein radius among known lenses

High magnification area for high-redshift sources

Mass profile is shallow and unrelaxed

Abstract

We identify 13 sets of multiply-lensed galaxies around MACS J0717.5+3745 ($z=0.546$), outlining a very large tangential critical curve of major axis $\sim2.8\arcmin$, filling the field of HST/ACS. The equivalent circular Einstein radius is $\theta_{e}= 55 \pm 3\arcsec$ (at an estimated source redshift of $z_{s}\sim2.5$), corresponding to $r_e\simeq 350\pm 20 kpc$ at the cluster redshift, nearly three times greater than that of A1689 ($r_e\simeq 140 kpc$ for $z_{s}=2.5$). The mass enclosed by this critical curve is very large, $7.4\pm 0.5 \times 10^{14}M_{\odot}$ and only weakly model dependent, with a relatively shallow mass profile within $r<250 kpc$, reflecting the unrelaxed appearance of this cluster. This shallow profile generates a much higher level of magnification than the well known relaxed lensing clusters of higher concentration, so that the area of sky exceeding a magnification of $>10\times$, is $\simeq 3.5\sq\arcmin$ for sources with $z\simeq 8$, making MACS J0717.5+3745 a compelling target for accessing faint objects at high redshift. We calculate that only one such cluster, with $\theta_{e}\ge 55\arcsec$, is predicted within $\sim 10^7$ Universes with $z\ge 0.55$, corresponding to a virial mass $\ge 3\times 10^{15} M_{\odot}$, for the standard $\Lambda CDM$ (WMAP5 parameters with $2\sigma$ uncertainties).