Precise strong lensing mass profile of the CLASH galaxy cluster MACS 2129

TL;DR

This paper provides a high-precision strong lensing mass profile of galaxy cluster MACS 2129 by combining HST imaging and VLT spectroscopy, achieving 2% accuracy in mass reconstruction within 100 kpc.

Contribution

It presents the first detailed strong lensing mass model of MACS 2129 with high accuracy, utilizing extensive spectroscopic confirmation of multiple lensed images.

Findings

Mass within Einstein radius: (1.35±0.03)×10^14 M_sun

High-precision mass profile constrained at 2% level

Identification of 31 multiple images for lensing analysis

Abstract

We present a detailed strong lensing (SL) mass reconstruction of the core of the galaxy cluster MACSJ 2129.4-0741 ($\rm z_{cl}=0.589$) obtained by combining high-resolution HST photometry from the CLASH survey with new spectroscopic observations from the CLASH-VLT survey. A background bright red passive galaxy at $\rm z_{sp}=1.36$, sextuply lensed in the cluster core, has four radial lensed images located over the three central cluster members. Further 19 background lensed galaxies are spectroscopically confirmed by our VLT survey, including 3 additional multiple systems. A total of 31 multiple images are used in the lensing analysis. This allows us to trace with high precision the total mass profile of the cluster in its very inner region ($\rm R<100$ kpc). Our final lensing mass model reproduces the multiple images systems identified in the cluster core with high accuracy of $0.4"$. This translates to an high precision mass reconstruction of MACS 2129, which is constrained at level of 2%. The cluster has Einstein parameter $\Theta_E=(29\pm4)"$, and a projected total mass of $\rm M_{tot}(<\Theta_E)=(1.35\pm0.03)\times 10^{14}M_{\odot}$ within such radius. Together with the cluster mass profile, we provide here also the complete spectroscopic dataset for the cluster members and lensed images measured with VLT/VIMOS within the CLASH-VLT survey.