Free-Form and Hybrid Lens Models for SDSS J1004+4112: Substructure and Central Image Time Delay Constraints

TL;DR

This study uses free-form and hybrid lens models to analyze SDSS J1004+4112, constraining substructure and central image time delays, and compares results with previous models and X-ray data.

Contribution

It introduces updated free-form and hybrid lens reconstructions incorporating recent time delay measurements and source position optimization, revealing a consistent mass profile and a notable substructure.

Findings

Mass distributions fit NFW profile consistent with previous studies

Identified a significant substructure of ~5x10^{11} solar masses

Predicted central quasar image time delay around 3000 days

Abstract

SDSS J1004+4112 is a well studied gravitational lens with a recently measured time delay between its first and fourth arriving quasar images. Using this new constraint, we present updated free-form lens reconstructions using the lens inversion method {\tt GRALE}, which only uses multiple image and time delay data as inputs. In addition, we obtain hybrid lens reconstructions by including a model of the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) as a Sersic lens. For both reconstructions, we use two sets of images as input: one with all identified images, and the other a revised set leaving out images that have been potentially misidentified. We also develop a source position optimization MCMC routine, performed on completed {\tt GRALE} runs, that allows each model to better match observed image positions and time delays. All the reconstructions produce similar mass distributions, with the hybrid models finding a steeper profile in the center. Similarly, all the mass distributions are fit by the Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) profile, finding results consistent with previous parametric reconstructions and those derived from Chandra X-ray observations. We identify a $\sim 5 \times 10^{11} M_{\odot}$ substructure apparently unaffiliated with any cluster member galaxy and present in all our models, and study its reality. Using our free-form and hybrid models we predict a central quasar image time delay of $\sim 2980 \pm 270$ and $\sim 3280 \pm 215$ days, respectively. A potential future measurement of this time delay will, while being an observational challenge, further constrain the steepness of the central density profile.