Weak Lensing by Minifilament or Minivoid as the Origin of Flux-ratio Anomalies in Lensed Quasar MG0414+0534

TL;DR

This paper investigates how line-of-sight minifilaments or minivoids can cause flux-ratio anomalies in a lensed quasar, offering an alternative to subhalo explanations and suggesting observational strategies for discrimination.

Contribution

It demonstrates that line-of-sight ministructures can explain flux anomalies without subhalos and proposes observational methods to distinguish these models.

Findings

Minifilaments or minivoids can produce flux-ratio anomalies with surface mass densities of 10^{8-9} h^{-1} solar mass/arcsec^2.

Astrometric perturbations are less than 0.001 arcsec, while convergence perturbations are about 0.004-0.008 at the anomaly site.

Precise measurements of convergence and shear, especially via submillimeter interferometry, can discriminate between line-of-sight structures and subhalo models.

Abstract

We explore the weak lensing effects by ministructures in the line-of-sight in a quadruply lensed quasar MG0414+0534 that shows an anomaly in the flux-ratios. We find that the observed flux-ratio anomaly can be explained by a presence of either a minifilament or a minivoid in the line-of-sight with a surface mass density of the order of 10^(8-9) h^(-1) solar mass /arcsec^2 without taking into account any subhalos in the lensing galaxy. The astrometric perturbation by a possible minifilament/minivoid is <~ 0.001 arcsec and the amplitudes of convergence perturbations due to these perturbers are ~ 0.004-0.008 at the place of an image that shows anomaly. In order to discriminate models with the line-of-sight ministructures from those with a subhalo(s) in the lensing galaxy, we need to precisely measure the projected convergence and shear around the lensing galaxy. The differential magnification effect could break the model degeneracy if the source size is > ~100 pc. Observation at the submillimeter band using interferometers will enable us to determine the origin of anomalies in the flux ratios.