Adaptive Grid Lens Modeling of the Cosmic Horseshoe Using Hubble Space Telescope Imaging

Abstract

Abstract The Cosmic Horseshoe gravitational lensing system is an extraordinary example of strong gravitational lensing both due to the nearly complete Einstein ring formed in this system and due to the star-forming nature of the lensed z = 2.38 Lyman-break galaxy. In this paper, we describe the development of a new lens modeling package and the lens models produced using the Hubble Space Telescope imaging. Our new lens modeling package uses adaptive grid methods, based especially on the algorithm described by Vegetti & Koopmans. The new lens modeling package introduces the K-means method to deal with multiple background sources. We utilize two parameterized models, the singular isothermal ellipsoid and the Navarro–Frenk–White model in order to optimize the Bayesian penalty function. Color–color diagrams show two distinct colors exist in the Einstein ring, which suggests that the Cosmic Horseshoe is formed from two background galaxies or from a highly irregular galaxy. We find that the best lens model includes two components and the total mass within the Einstein ring is . The background source reconstruction shows two peaks in the source plane and the most probable lens profile is consistent with the light profile of the foreground galaxy when comparing axis ratios and position angles.