Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
1998-06-04
Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 299 (1998) 845-850
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
6 pages, 2 single-panel figures, 2 double-panel figures, one six-panel figure. To appear in MNRAS
Scientific paper
10.1046/j.1365-8711.1998.01878.x
We investigate gravitational lensing by a realistic model of disk galaxies. Most of the mass is contained in a large spherical isothermal dark matter halo, but the potential is modified significantly in the core by a gravitationally-dominant exponential disk. The method used is adapted from a very general multi-lens ray-tracing technique developed by Moeller. We investigate the effects of the disk-to-halo mass ratio, the disk scale length, the disk inclination to the line of sight and the lens redshift on two strong-lensing cross sections: the cross section for multiple imaging, and the cross section for large magnifications, in excess of a factor of 10. We find that the multiple-imaging cross section can be enhanced significantly by an almost edge-on Milky Way disk as compared with a singular isothermal sphere (SIS) in individual cases; however, when averaged over all disk inclinations, the cross section is only increased by about fifty per cent. These results are consistent with other recent work. The presence of a disk, however, increases the inclination-averaged high-magnification cross section by an order of magnitude as compared with a SIS. This result has important implications for magnification bias in future lens surveys, particularly those in the submillimetre waveband, where dust extinction in the lensing galaxy has no effect on the brightness of the images.
Blain Andrew W.
Moeller Ole
No associations
LandOfFree
Strong gravitational lensing by spiral galaxies does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Strong gravitational lensing by spiral galaxies, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Strong gravitational lensing by spiral galaxies will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-589473