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# VLBI imaging of the gravitational lens MG J0414+0534

## 1 Introduction

The gravitationally lensed image of QSO MG J0414+0534 ($`z=2.639\pm 0.002`$ (Lawrence et al. law95 (1995)), $`V=21.22`$, also PKS 0411+05, 4C 05.19, and DA 131) with four components separated by up to 2 arcseconds is one of the best examples of morphology produced by an elliptical gravitational potential (Hewitt et al. hew92 (1992), Katz et al. kat97 (1997)). The lens appears to be an elliptical galaxy (Schechter & Moore sch93 (1993)), at a redshift $`z=0.9584\pm 0.0002`$ (Tonry & Kochanek ton99 (1999)).

Different studies in radio using the VLA have provided important information about the structure of the gravitational lens (Moore & Hewitt (moo97 (1997)) and references therein). Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations show an optical arc joining the three brightest components (Falco et al. fal97 (1997)). VLBI images of this radio source show some extended structure in the sub-images (Patnaik & Porcas pat96 (1996), Porcas por98 (1998)).

We have undertaken a project of multi-epoch observations of the quadruple images of each of the gravitationally lensed objects MG J0414+0534 and B1422+231, to compare possible structural changes in the lensed images and measure possible shifts in the relative positions of the components. These shifts would be caused by intrinsic changes in the lensed object or by an alteration of the alignment in the system observer-lens-lensed object due to relative proper motion of the latter two elements (see Kochanek et al. koc96 (1996)). For non-magnified extragalactic objects and peculiar velocities of, say, 100 to 1000 km s-1, such relative proper motions would not be detectable astrometrically over decades. Because of their high degree of symmetry, quadruple gravitationally lensed systems can magnify intrinsic velocities by factors of 10–100 while minimizing systematic effects for measurements of relative motions (Kochanek et al. koc96 (1996)).

We present here the mapping and modeling results from the first epoch of observations of MG J0414+0534. We describe our VLBI observations in Sect. 2, report our imaging results of MG J0414+0534 in Sect. 3, discuss our modeling results in Sect. 4 and give a summary in Sect. 5.

## 2 Observations and data reduction

We observed MG J0414+0534 at 8.4 GHz on 23 November 1997 with a global VLBI array for over 12 hr. We used a basic integration time of 0.4 s. The antennas used were (name, diameter, location): Medicina (32 m, Italy), Noto (32 m, Italy), Effelsberg (100 m, Germany), DSS63 (70 m, Spain), the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) (10 antennas of 25 m across the US), the phased-VLA (130 m-equivalent, NM, US), and DSS14 (70 m, CA, US). Data were recorded with right circular polarization using mode 128-2-2, achieving a bandwidth of 32 MHz, and correlated at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) VLBA Correlator (Socorro, NM, US). The observing mode put the correlator close to most demanding performance, taking advantage of its latest technical improvements (actually, achieving the smallest sample interval –widest channel bandwidth– with the highest spectral resolution –largest delay range– in the used mode). The antennas pointed to the center of the field of the four images of the radio source (all within the individual antenna beam at the same time) and only one correlation pass was needed to determine the interferometric visibilities jointly for the four components. Due to operational reasons, the strongest of the four components (A1, see below) was chosen as phase center at correlation time.

The observing duty cycle consisted of 2 min on the calibrator source TXS 0357+057 and 5.5 min on the target source MG J0414+0534. We allocated some calibrators and fringe-finders (BL 1803+784, QSO 1928+738, BL 2007+777, 3C 84 and 3C 345) at the beginning and the end of the observations.

We analyzed the data using the Astronomical Image Processing System (aips, version 15oct99). We applied a priori amplitude calibrations determined from the measured system temperatures and available antenna gains. We aligned the phase slopes across each of the 16 MHz bands using the information from each telescope, when available. In the absence of this information, we applied manual phase calibration deduced from observations of TXS 0357+057, 3C 84, and 3C 345. We then performed standard fringe-fitting on the calibrators and the target source. We made a preliminary map of MG J0414+0534 by down-weighting (tapering) the longest baselines to gain sensitivity to extended surface brightness. We used this initial image to perform a second fringe-fit data correction in aips.

Since the total angular size of MG J0414+0534 is 2 arcseconds, wide-field imaging techniques (see, e.g., Garrett et al. gar99 (1999)) are needed. At a given frequency, the field of view of a VLBI map is determined by the averaging time of the data and the bandwidth of the observation (see, e.g., Cotton cot99 (1999), Bridle & Schwab bri99 (1999)). Over-averaging in frequency and time leads to bandwidth- and time-smearing, respectively. For our data, we averaged every four 0.25 MHz channels at the two 16 MHz frequency bands to obtain 32 frequency channels, each of 1 MHz width. Later on, to speed up the mapping process, we time-averaged in 4 s intervals (shorter averaging times, 1.2 and 2.4 s, did not produce significant variations). The adopted 4 s and 1 MHz averagings avoid both types of smearing, allowing a size of the data set just small enough to be manageable with our computing resources. This wide-field mapping technique allows to image fields of arcsecond-size with milliarcsecond resolution. However, a single mapping field results of unmanageable size. As a solution, the aips task imagr provides a reliable wide-field mapping methodology based on a multi-windowing approach. Our imaging strategy emphasized tapering at the beginning of the mapping process to help recovering most of the extended flux density in the sub-images. In further iterations we lifted the tapering to achieve the full resolution provided by the global VLBI array. Using a hybrid weighting (between uniform and natural, robust=$``$1 in imagr task) at full resolution, the synthesized beam obtained was of 2.55$`\times `$1.13 mas (position angle (P.A.) 14.6).

## 3 Imaging results

We show the final aips maps in Fig. 1. At the center of Fig. 1, we plot a wide-field image of the source, restored with a circular Gaussian beam 25 mas in diameter to illustrate the location of the four components. At this resolution, MG J0414+0534 comprises two bright, close components (A1 and A2) separated by 0$`\text{.}^{\prime \prime }`$47 and two weaker components B and C separated 2$`\text{.}^{\prime \prime }`$12 from each other, and 2$`\text{.}^{\prime \prime }`$02 and 2$`\text{.}^{\prime \prime }`$08 from A1, respectively. We show the map dimensions in the panel corresponding to A1 (bottom, left), preserving the same map scale in the other three sub-images. Each of these sub-images has been restored with the appropriate synthesized beam, which is about $`2.55\times 1.13`$ mas, P.A. $`14.6\mathrm{°}`$. In Fig. 2, we show more detailed maps of the brightest features of the four sub-images at full resolution. We present in Table 1 their peaks of brightness $`I_{\mathrm{peak}}`$ and the total flux density values ($`S_{\mathrm{tot}}`$) for the whole sub-image and for core-like and jet-like structures, obtained computing the flux densities of the clean components in each of those regions. VLA flux density ratios among sub-images given by Katz & Hewitt (kat93 (1993)) and Katz et al. (kat97 (1997)) are similar to ours. Our results show A1 and A2 somewhat brighter, and B somewhat weaker as their results. It is difficult to compare both data sets, since some flux density present at the VLA may not be detected in the VLBI images.

The gravitational lensing geometry produces four images of the same object, deformed and with different magnification factors. In addition, some lensed, unresolved components might also be fainter than the sensitivity level of our maps, causing some confusion in the feature identification among different sub-images. In our maps, we do not observe isolated, compact components (like in the quadruple lensed object B1422+231) but, rather, very complex structures, with core-like and jet-like regions that show different morphologies for each lensed image.

We discuss in turn the features of each lensed image. Image A1. It is the most complex and the brightest. There are two parallel jet-like components, totally misaligned with respect to the core-like region. The fainter one is 20 mas away, P.A. $`15^{}`$. The brighter one, very stretched along P.A. $`30^{}`$ begins at about 10 mas southwest of the core-like region, and extends over more than 50 mas. The brightest feature (core-like) has two components along P.A. $`60^{}`$ and a resolved structure. Image A2. Two extended regions not quite co-aligned (in the same direction) are present at about 30 mas to the NE and 80 mas to the SW of the central (core-like) area. The core-like area (Fig. 2, top, left) is symmetric, with two components, elongated over more than 15 mas at P.A. $`20^{}`$. Image B. It presents two extended jet-like regions, fairly aligned with its central area, at about 70 mas to the NW and SE. The core-like area itself is double and elongated more than 15 mas at P.A. $`70^{}`$. Image C. It presents a double N-S structure, the northern feature being the brightest, and extended emission to the north of this double structure. The core-like region presents some extended emission to the South.

A comparison of our maps with previously published images of MG J0414+0534 shows that the EVN images at 5 GHz shown in Porcas (por98 (1998)) are similar to our maps, but with a wider beam and lower dynamic range. The same holds for the 1.7 GHz EVN images from Patnaik & Porcas (pat96 (1996)). The optical image from Falco et al. (fal97 (1997)) shows emission extending over an arc joining A1, A2 and B.

## 4 Lens models

Quadruple gravitational lens systems can be produced by an elliptical lensing potential. Many attempts have been made to model MG J0414+0534 (e.g. Kochanek koc91 (1991), Hewitt et al. hew92 (1992), Witt et al. wit95 (1995)). Falco et al. (fal97 (1997)) could not find models that were simultaneously consistent with the brightest features of the optical images and the lower-resolution radio data from the VLA (e.g., Katz & Hewitt kat93 (1993)). The image flux densities at radio wavelengths have shown little variation, and have not yielded time delays (Moore & Hewitt moo97 (1997)). We show below that the addition to the lens model of a previously known but unsuspected lens galaxy near the images suffices to account for the properties of the images. This new model also predicts time delays between the different lensed sub-images.

We fitted a simple lens model to our VLBI data. Because the lens galaxy G is not detected in these data, we used the deep HST NICMOS H-band ($`\lambda =1.6\mu `$m) image from the CfA/Arizona Space Telescope Lens Survey (CASTLES; e.g., Falco et al. fal99 (1999)) to estimate the coordinates of the center of brightness and the structural parameters of the lens galaxy G (see Fig. 3). We registered the VLBI and point-like infrared images by assuming that the infrared positions of A1, A2, B and C correspond to the peaks of brightness of each of the four VLBI sub-images. The transformation that maps the infrared coordinates to those of a or b is a scale change (to take into account a chip position and wavelength-dependent uncertainty of $`10`$ mas in the NICMOS/NIC2 scale) with a rotation (to take into account the uncertainty of $`0\stackrel{}{.}1`$ in the orientation of HST). We found the transformation to the feature a (b) requires a rotation of $`0\stackrel{}{.}28`$ ($`0\stackrel{}{.}16`$) and a scaling by $`0.992`$ ($`0.991`$), with rms residuals of 11 (5) mas. The radio and infrared emission do not emanate necessarily from the same region of the source. Therefore, we adopt the brightest feature a as the 8.4 GHz counterpart of the quasar, and assign to it positional uncertainties of 11 mas, to reflect the uncertainty in the registration. In this paper, we ignore the lensed jet structure because of the difficulty in establishing the correspondence between lensed components along the jets. After ongoing software developments are completed, this aspect will be addressed in a forthcoming paper.

Taking as origin of coordinates the feature a on image A1, we use as constraints for the lens models the 6 relative coordinates of feature a (Table 1) (assuming a conservative 0.5 mas uncertainty in the positions), the coordinates of G, $`x_G=1072\pm 11`$ mas, $`y_G=+665\pm 11`$ mas, and the 3 peak of brightness ratios from the radio sub-images (with 10% uncertainties due to the possibility of microlensing). We adjusted lens models with a small number of parameters. Our initial model for the mass density distribution is a singular isothermal ellipsoid (SIE), with 5 parameters: the Einstein ring radius $`b`$, the ellipticity $`ϵ`$, sky position angle $`\theta _ϵ`$, and coordinates $`x`$ and $`y`$. SIE models yield values that are consistent with the masses of other lens galaxies (e.g., Lehár et al. leh00 (2000)) and that reflect the properties of elliptical galaxies (e.g., Kochanek et al. koc00 (2000)). As a rule, single mass distributions require external lensing shear to account for the properties of quadruple lens systems (Keeton et al. kee97 (1997)). Therefore, we added external shear with amplitude $`\gamma `$ and position angle $`\theta _\gamma `$ to our model. The total number of parameters of our SIE+$`\gamma `$ model is 7.

We adjusted all 7 parameters of the SIE+$`\gamma `$ model using the sum of weighted rms residuals for the peak of brightness ratios, the coordinates of G and those of the a feature images as the figure of merit, $`\chi ^2`$. The best-fitting parameters of this initial model yielded $`\chi ^230`$ principally because the lens fell $`60`$ mas away from the observed galaxy. Therefore, we included object X (Schechter & Moore sch93 (1993)) at $`x_X=1457\pm 13`$ mas, $`y_X=+2122\pm 13`$ mas (derived from the CASTLES data) as a possible additional component of the lens. Because X is about 10 times fainter than G, its structure cannot be distinguished from a circular brightness distribution. Thus, we simply assumed X is a singular isothermal sphere (SIS) and added its 3 parameters, $`x_X`$, $`y_X`$ and $`b_X`$ to the model, where $`x_X`$ and $`y_X`$ are constrained by the CASTLES data. We adjusted the resulting 10 parameters of the SIE+$`\gamma `$+SIS model, which therefore has 3 degrees of freedom (DOF). We thus found values that account nearly exactly for all the positions of the images of feature a as well as those of G and X, and also for the ratios of the peaks of brightness at the core-like regions, with a final merit per DOF $`\chi ^2/3=1.7`$ (arising solely from the constraints in the peak of brightness ratios). The parameters of this model are shown in Table 2. The model predicts that B is the leading image when the source varies: the time delays in a flat cosmology ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_0=1`$, $`H_0=65`$ km s-1 Mpc-1) are $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_{A1B}=15.7\pm 1.3`$ days, $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_{A2B}=16.0\pm 1.4`$ days and $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_{CB}=66\pm 5`$ days, where the error bars are an estimation from the variation of the predicted time delay as the lens model parameters are varied within the $`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^21`$ region.

Our simple lens model reproduces successfully the data. It is remarkable that: a) the position angle of the SIE model is consistent with that of the light of G ($`96\mathrm{°}\pm 4`$); b) the ratio of the two Einstein ring radii, which scales as the square root of the ratio of luminosities, $`b_X/b_G=0.17\pm 0.02`$, is consistent with the brightness ratio of X and G, whose magnitudes differ by $`2.6\pm 0.5`$ mag; and c) the amplitude of the shear is also consistent with that expected from cosmic shear (Bar-kana bar96 (1996)), and with the number of galaxies seen within a radius of $`1`$ arcmin of the lens system (McLeod et al. mcl00 (2000)).

## 5 Summary

We present detailed state-of-the-art global VLBI images of the gravitational lens system MG J0414+0534. The individual images, separated by distances up to 2 arcseconds, exhibit radio structures extending up to 100 mas. The use of wide-field mapping techniques in very sensitive observations provides high-quality images of extended structures in MG J0414+0534, showing features that extend more than 1500 beam widths across in the E-W direction, and more than 750 N-S.

We reproduce successfully the relative positions and peak of brightness ratios of the radio cores with a lens model consisting of a singular isothermal ellipsoid for the galaxy G, an external shear to it, and a secondary potential given by a singular isothermal sphere associated with object X. The model predicts that B is the leading image and C lags all the other images with delays for all image pairs of several weeks. It is important to notice the alignment of the optical images of the lens galaxy G and the model’s elliptical potential (SIE). The model’s shear is also consistent in amplitude with the expected cosmic shear and from the observed environment (within a radius of $`1`$ arcmin) of the lens system (McLeod et al. mcl00 (2000)). Our model also provides consistency between the luminosity ratio for X and G and the ratio of their Einstein radii. We plan to refine and study further our lens model by adding the constraints provided by the lensed jets, using a new software package for lens modeling developed by Keeton et al. (in preparation) that avoids the problem of matching components along these jets, in the different lensed images.

###### Acknowledgements.

We are especially grateful to J. Romney for essential help provided during correlation and post-correlation. We acknowledge also R.W. Porcas and A.R. Patnaik for useful discussions. This work has been partially supported by the Spanish DGICYT Grants No. PB96-0782 and PB97-1164 and by European Comission’s TMR-LSF programme, contract No. ERBFMGECT950012. NRAO is operated under license by Associated Universities, Inc., under cooperative agreement with NSF.


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# RADIAL ARC STATISTICS: A NEW POWERFUL PROBE OF THE CENTRAL DENSITY PROFILE OF GALAXY CLUSTERS

## 1 Introduction

The central density profile of dark matter halos around galaxies and galaxy clusters is now highlighted in the dark matter cosmology. Navarro et al. (1997) have performed cosmological N-body simulations based on cold dark matter models and show that the equilibrium density profiles of dark matter halos have self-similar profiles. The profile (hereafter, NFW profile) is thought to be the final relaxed state of self-gravitating collisionless particles and thereby called a universal profile. The NFW profile has a central cusp diverging as $`\rho (r)r^1`$. Recent simulations with higher resolution have confirmed existence of a universal profile but show that the central density profile gets steeper and is better represented by $`\rho (r)r^{1.5}`$ (Fukushige & Makino, 1997; Moore et al., 2000) although slight variation of the central density profiles from halo to halo is reported (Jing & Suto, 2000).

Rotation curve measurements for dwarf galaxies (e.g. Moore, 1994; Dalcanton & Bernstein, 2000) have shown that central density profiles are flat and a density profile with a central cusp is inconsistent with the mass distribution of dwarf galaxies. To solve the discrepancy between the theoretical prediction and the observations for dwarf galaxies, Spergel & Steinhardt (2000) have proposed that the dark matter has a finite cross-section to allow strong self-interactions between the dark matter particles themselves. This type of dark matter is called self-interacting dark matter (hereafter, SIDM). The introduction of the self-interaction may reduce the central mass concentration found in the universal profile obtained by pure collisionless dark matter simulations. Therefore, the precise measurement of central density profiles of dark matter halos is one of the key questions to solve the nature of the dark matter.

Both observational and theoretical studies have been done to constrain the SIDM cross-section. Higher resolution measurements of rotation curves of dwarf galaxies (e.g. van den Bosch & Swaters, 2000) have rejected the central profile of $`r^{1.5}`$ although the data cannot discriminate whether the central density profiles have constant density cores or $`r^1`$ cuspy profiles. Miralda-Escude (2000) has shown that ellipticity of the dark halo core of the lensing cluster MS 2137.3$``$2353 (catalog ) is rather high using the strong lensing data. He has proposed to use the measured ellipticity to give an upper limit on the SIDM cross-section. Yoshida et al. (2000) have performed N-body simulations of cluster formation with various values of SIDM cross-sections. They show that a few collisions per particle per Hubble time at the halo center can substantially affect the central density profile. Therefore, precise measurements of central density profiles can provide a strong constraint on the SIDM cross-section.

We examine how a number ratio of radial arcs to tangential arcs depends on the central density profile of galaxy clusters. A radial arc is a gravitationally lensed image whose major axis lies in the radial direction of a cluster-lens potential. A tangential arc is a gravitationally lensed image whose major axis lies in the tangential direction of a cluster-lens potential. We define ‘radial arc statistics’ as a statistical average of number ratios of radial arcs to tangential arcs found in a certain cluster sample. Recently, Wyithe et al. (2000) have proposed an arc statistics for probing the central density profile of galaxy clusters. In their arc statistics, the absolute frequency of finding arcs appeared in a cluster must be used. However, the absolute frequency of finding arcs in a certain cluster sample is known to be sensitive to yet uncertain parameters e.g. evolution of background galaxies and details of mass distribution of galaxy clusters (Hattori et al., 1997; Hamana & Futamase, 1997; Molikawa et al., 1999). No model has succeeded to reproduce the observed high frequency of finding arcs yet. As shown in this paper, the proposed radial arc statistics is free from the systematic errors coming from above uncertainties. Throughout this paper, a cosmological model of $`(\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{m}}^{}{}_{0}{}^{},\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{\Lambda }}^{}{}_{0}{}^{},H_0)=(0.3,0.7,100h\mathrm{km}/\mathrm{s})`$ is assumed.

## 2 Radial arc statistics

The density profile we use is

$$\rho (r)=\frac{\rho _s}{\stackrel{~}{r}^a(1+\stackrel{~}{r})^{3a}};\stackrel{~}{r}\frac{r}{r_s},$$
(1)
where $`r_s`$ is the scale radius, $`\rho _s`$ is the critical density times the (dimensionless) characteristic over-density, and adopted values of $`a`$ are $`0.5,1.0,1.5,`$ and $`2.0`$. A projected mass $`m_a(x)`$ can be written as

$$m_a(x)=4\pi r_s^3\rho _s_0^{\mathrm{}}I_a(x,z)𝑑z,$$
(2)
where $`\stackrel{~}{r}^2=x^2+z^2`$ ($`z`$ is the line-of-sight direction.) and

$$I_a(x,z)_0^x\frac{x^{}dx^{}}{\left(\sqrt{x_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}+z^2}\right)^a\left(1+\sqrt{x_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}+z^2}\right)^{3a}}.$$
(3)
The lens equation reads

$$y=xb\widehat{\alpha }_a(x),$$
(4)
where $`y\beta /\theta _s`$ is a source position, $`x=\theta /\theta _s`$ is an image position, $`b16\pi G\rho _sr_sD_{\mathrm{OL}}D_{\mathrm{LS}}/c^2D_{\mathrm{OS}}=4\rho _sr_s/\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{cr}}`$ is called lens parameter and $`\theta _sr_s/D_{\mathrm{OL}}`$. $`D_{\mathrm{OL}}`$ is the angular distance from the observer to the lens, $`D_{\mathrm{LS}}`$ is that from the lens to the source galaxy, $`D_{\mathrm{OS}}`$ is that from the observer to the source galaxy, and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{cr}}`$ is the critical surface mass density. For example, $`b=1.1`$ corresponds to a cluster at redshift of $`0.38`$ with a virial temperature $`k_\mathrm{B}T_{\mathrm{vir}}=8`$ keV and a source redshift of $`1.0`$ (e.g. Eke et al., 1998).

An expected number ratio of radial arcs to tangential arcs is calculated by calculating a ratio of a cross-section forming radial arcs to that forming tangential arcs. It is assumed that source galaxies are circular and their size is infinitesimal, i.e. lensing magnification matrix is same everywhere in the source and is represented by that at the source center. A quantity $`\lambda _\mathrm{r}(dy/dx)^1`$ represents stretching-contracting factor in the radial direction of a lens potential. A quantity $`\lambda _\mathrm{t}(y/x)^1`$ represents stretching-contracting factor in the tangential direction of a lens potential. Hereafter, we use the word ‘radial arc’ for an image which satisfies $`|\lambda _\mathrm{r}|>|\lambda _\mathrm{t}|`$ and ‘tangential arc’ for an image which satisfies $`|\lambda _\mathrm{t}|>|\lambda _\mathrm{r}|`$. The axis ratios of a radial arc $`R(x)`$ and a tangential arc $`T(x)`$ are given by

$$R(x)=\left|\frac{\lambda _\mathrm{r}(x)}{\lambda _\mathrm{t}(x)}\right|,T(x)=\left|\frac{\lambda _\mathrm{t}(x)}{\lambda _\mathrm{r}(x)}\right|,$$
(5)
respectively. The radial and tangential cross-sections are calculated by solving the following inequalities:

$$ϵ_{\mathrm{th}}<R(x)\mathrm{},ϵ_{\mathrm{th}}<T(x)\mathrm{},$$
(6)
where $`ϵ_{\mathrm{th}}`$ is the threshold axis ratio. We calculate ratios of radial cross-sections to tangential cross-sections for $`a=0.5,1.0,1.5,2.0`$. The NFW profile corresponds to $`a=1`$.

In Figure 1, we show the expected number ratios of radial arcs whose axis ratios are larger than the threshold value $`ϵ_{\mathrm{th}}`$, to tangential arcs which have the same threshold axis ratio, against the threshold axis ratio $`ϵ_{\mathrm{th}}`$. Calculations were done for $`b=0.5,1.0,1.5,2.0,`$ and $`2.5`$ which cover almost all practical combinations of cluster redshifts and their masses, and source redshifts.

Figure 1 shows that the number ratios drastically vary with $`a`$ values and variation due to variation of $`b`$ values is much smaller. This indicates that the number ratios of radial arcs to tangential arcs in a certain cluster sample is a powerful probe for the central density profile of galaxy clusters. Biases in selection of a cluster sample may be reflected in biases of cluster masses and their redshifts, and the deepness of the observations which is equivalent to source redshifts. Changing values of these parameters only results in change of $`b`$ values. Therefore, insensitivity of the radial arc statistics to $`b`$ values shows that the selection biases of a cluster sample less affects the constraint from the radial arc statistics on the central density profile. A dramatic increase of the radial arc number with increasing of $`a`$ from $`1.5`$ to $`2`$ found in Figure 1 can be understood as follows. When the central density profile is gentler than $`r^2`$, a lens could have radial caustics where the stretching factor in the radial direction become infinite, and radial arcs are produced in two different ways (Hattori et al., 1999). When the central density profile is gentler than $`r^{1.5}`$, radial arcs are produced only when source galaxies touch the radial caustics. On the other hand, when the central density profile is steeper than $`r^{1.5}`$, the width of the source image along the tangential direction is contracted. Therefore, radial arcs can be produced without significant stretching in the radial direction. As a result, the number of radial arcs are dramatically increased when the central density profile is steeper than $`r^{1.5}`$. Since intrinsic source size of $`L_{}`$ galaxies at a redshift of $`1`$ which are the dominant sources of observed arcs, is $`1`$ arcsec, high resolution instruments with the Full-Width-at-Half-Maximum of better than $`0.20.1`$ arcsec., like Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Subaru etc., is required to make a reliable sample for the radial arc statistics.

## 3 Comparison with observations

In TABLE 1, we list clusters for which existence of radial arcs were reported. In most of the cases, the radial arcs are thin and small. Special attention is necessary to find a radial arc even on the HST images. The listed clusters in Table 1 could be only a set for which existence or non-existence of radial arcs have been securely checked. This sample is, of course, not uniform and is highly biased by the interests of the observer for each cluster. However, as mentioned in previous section, our radial arc statistics is little affected by the selection biases. We could safely use this sample for the comparison with theoretical results. The hyphenated arcs in Table 1 are folded or separated but nearly folded images and, therefore, each ‘hyphenated arcs’ is counted as a single arc because those (nearly) folded images are produced from a single source. The length of these arcs is calculated as a half (in the case of merging of two images) or one third (in the case of merging of three images) of the total length. Since all of the reported radial arcs have axis ratio larger than $`4`$, the threshold value can be set to $`4`$. Tangential arcs with axis ratios larger than $`4`$ in the same clusters are also listed in TABLE 1.

TABLE 1 shows that the observational number ratio of radial arcs to tangential arcs is $`0.7`$ on average. This indicates $`a=1.01.5`$. The central density profile with $`a>1.5`$ over-produces radial arcs and can be rejected. On the other hand, the central density profile with $`a<1.0`$ predicts too few radial arcs compared with the observed results and also can be rejected. Therefore, the radial arc statistics supports that the central density profile of cluster is in the range of $`r^{11.5}`$ and dark matter is collisionless at least on the cluster scale.

## 4 Discussion

We have shown that the radial arc statistics which is defined as a number ratio of radial arcs to tangential arcs appeared in a certain sample of clusters, strongly depends on the central density profile, and is almost independent of other cluster properties and source redshifts. Therefore, our radial arc statistics which uses the number ratio can provide a robust test to constrain the central density profile of galaxy clusters. A tentative comparison with observations shows that the cluster central density profile is as steep as $`r^{11.5}`$. This result indicates that the dark matter should be collisionless at least in cluster scale. Therefore, even if the dark matter has a finite collision cross-section of the self-interaction $`\sigma _{\mathrm{coll}}`$, the mean free time $`t_{\mathrm{free}}`$ of a dark matter particle (mass $`m`$) should be longer than a cluster age $`t_{\mathrm{age}}`$. The mean free time $`t_{\mathrm{free}}`$ can be estimated as $`t_{\mathrm{free}}(\rho _s/m\sigma _{\mathrm{coll}}V_{\mathrm{cl}})^1`$ where $`V_{\mathrm{cl}}2000(T_{\mathrm{vir}}/8\mathrm{keV})^{1/2}`$ km/s is a cluster 3D velocity dispersion, assuming that a characteristic density of the dark matter in clusters is represented by $`\rho _s`$. Assuming a cluster redshift of $`0.38`$, its virial temperature of $`8`$ keV, and a cluster age of $`6.6h^1`$ Gyr, the upper limit is obtained as $`\sigma _{\mathrm{coll}}/m<0.11h^1\mathrm{cm}^2/\mathrm{g}`$. According to the numerical simulations (Yoshida et al., 2000), this upper limit allows weak self-interaction of the dark matter which produces a finite core in cluster mass distribution. Therefore, the above mentioned upper limit on $`\sigma _{\mathrm{coll}}/m`$ should be taken as conservative limit. As shown by Yoshida et al. (2000), the collision rate expected from this small cross-section in the dwarf galaxies is too small to reproduce core radii of dwarf galaxies inferred from rotation curve measurements. Therefore, the existence of cores in dwarf galaxies is still mystery.

Although we have assumed infinitesimal source size, this assumption is valid only if a variation of the lensing amplification within a source is negligible. In Figure 2, we show the width of the region on the source plane which satisfies the condition of Eq.(6) for a infinitesimal source. The width is scaled by $`D_{\mathrm{OS}}`$, for each threshold axis ratio using a typical value of $`b=1.0`$ and $`r_s=0.24h^1`$ Mpc. Since size of $`L_{}`$ galaxy is $`1`$ arcsec at a redshift of $`1`$ which is the dominant source for arcs, Figure 2 shows that the infinitesimal source approximation could provide reasonable estimations for the frequency of the tangential arcs but this assumption could not be good approximation for estimating the frequency of radial arcs for $`a<2.0`$. The quantitative studies of the effect of the finite source extents as well as the lens-clusters ellipticity and irregularity in mass distribution, will be done in the forthcoming paper.

The cluster sample used for comparison with theoretical prediction should be improved. It should be mentioned, for example, that all the clusters listed in TABLE 1 are XD clusters. An XD cluster is a cluster which has a bright elliptical galaxy at the center of the X-ray emission. Since radial arcs are expected to appear in the very central region of a galaxy cluster and all the radial arcs listed in TABLE 1 are found near cDs, it must be checked whether a local central density increment by the mass of the cD galaxy plays an important role on forming radial arcs. Therefore much more number of clusters, including non-XD clusters, should be included in the radial arc statistics sample by future high resolution observation.

This research was partially supported by the Grants-in-Aid of the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, and Culture of Japan (No. 11440060).


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# Quantum erasure by transverse indistinguishability

## I INTRODUCTION

Studying Quantum Physics experimentally has become much easier with the use of the twin photons produced in the spontaneous parametric down-conversion process. Many of the experiments performed so far, are realizations of different kinds of interferometers. These interferometers allow us to improve our understanding of the nature of light and matter. It is convenient to think these interferometers, as divided in two categories: the ones utilizing the longitudinal degrees of freedom of the field and the ones utilizing its transverse degrees of freedom.

We call longitudinal interferometers, the ones of the type of Michelson’s and Mach-Zehnder’s interferometers. A large number of experiments with twin photons has been performed with them. Some examples are those of Refs. . The transverse interferometers, are the ones of the kind of the double-slit or Young interferometers. Some examples are given in Refs. . These interferometers are important because they are perfect realizations of some gedankenexperiments, used in the discussion of important issues on the foundations of Quantum Mechanics. The transverse interferometers are very robust, quite stable and phase differences can be controlled by simple displacement of detectors in most of the cases. For this reason, they have become an important tool in the field of multiparticle interferometry.

In this paper, we analyze a transverse interferometer utilizing the twin photons of the down-conversion. As far as we are concerned, it was the first interferometer with twin photons and a double-slit. The main result of that work, was to show that interference fringes were observed in the coincidence counting rate, while at the same time, intensity interference fringes could not be observed. Our aim here is to revisit this experiment and show that it can be viewed as a quantum eraser. Even though other experiments performed in the past could also be interpreted in the same way as a quantum eraser, this experiment was probably one of the first utilizing twin photons. The fact that twin photons were employed stresses the quantum character of the which path information erasure, since it is performed by quantum state projection of a nonlocal wave function.

## II THE DOUBLE-SLIT EXPERIMENT WITH TWIN PHOTONS

Let us briefly recall the main idea behind the experiment described in Ref. . Fig. 1 shows a sketch of the set-up. Twin photons are produced in the process of spontaneous parametric down-conversion and they are detected in coincidence. The signal photon is passed through a double-slit and the idler photon goes straight to the detector. Coincidence fringes are detected by displacing transversely the signal detector, which is after the slits and keeping the idler detector fixed. It was shown that the coincidence profile exhibited interference fringes, even when intensity fringes were not observed.

As it is known, and it was demonstrated for the parametric down-conversion, the second order coherence, which defines the visibility of the intensity fringes, is dependent on the geometrical properties of the light source. If we have a small source, approximately spherical waves are generated and if the slits are far enough, the second order coherence is almost perfect. Then, intensity interference fringes are obtained in a double-slit experiment with unity visibility. If we have an extended source instead, the degree of coherence can be smaller than one, as well as the visibility of the intensity interference fringes. The degree of coherence depends strongly on the source length and the visibility of the fringes depends on the separation between slits and the distance between source and slits.

However, if twin photons are used and coincidence detection is performed, the coherence function is now a fourth order one. The degree of coherence becomes dependent on the way the idler beam is detected. The coincidence interference fringes also become dependent on it. In particular, it was shown that the detection through a small idler aperture leads to an improvement on the coincidence fringes visibility and a large idler aperture tends to destroy the interference fringes. Even if we do not have second order interference, fourth order coherence can be obtained by the use of a small area detector for the idler beam. This is the principle of a quantum eraser.

## III THE QUANTUM ERASER ALGORITHM

For the sake of simplicity, we will demonstrate the quantum erasure aspect of the above mentioned experiment by comparing it with a simpler system. We will introduce a quantum erasure algorithm. Any experience following this procedure, can be understood as a quantum erasure. The analysis is the same as in reference .

The quantum eraser algorithm has three steps:

1. A superposition of state is produced and a phase dependent measurement is performed on the state. See Fig. 2a for example. A small light source emits a photon. The photon passes through a double-slit. The slits are labeled 1 and 2 and the state of the photon after the slits is given by:

$$|\mathrm{\Psi }=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|\psi _1+|\psi _2).$$
(1)
By detecting the photon after the slits, in different positions in a plane transverse to the propagation direction, a phase dependent measurement is performed. The phase difference between states $`|\psi _1`$ and $`|\psi _2`$ is proportional to the path difference from each slit to the detector. Interference fringes are then observed.
2. The second step is to provide a possibility of having which path information. In Fig. 2b, this is performed by placing wave plates in front of each slit, so that if the photon passes through slit 1, it will be $`L`$ (left) circularly polarized and if it passes through slit 2, it will emerge $`R`$ (right) circularly polarized. As it is known, the mere possibility of having which path information destroys the interference pattern. In terms of the state of the system, states $`|\psi _1`$ and $`|\psi _2`$ have been entangled with an internal degree of freedom (the polarization), which is used to identify the path:

$$|\mathrm{\Psi }=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|\psi _1|L+|\psi _2|R).$$
(2)
Notice that a polarization independent detection leads to an incoherent sum of the intensities due to each polarization. This leads to no interference.
3. Finally, the third and last step consists of erasing the which path information. In Fig. 2c, passing the photon through a linear polarizer performs the erasure. This is equivalent to a projection of the system onto a state which is not entangled with the polarization anymore:

$$|\mathrm{\Psi }=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|\psi _1+|\psi _2)|\theta ,$$
(3)
where $`\theta `$ represents the angle of the polarizer. The interference fringes are recovered.

The above state can be understood as the state of the system just before detection. In fact, it is the passage of the photon through the polarizer, which projects its state onto a linear polarization state.

In next section, we will show that the experiment of reference  follows the above algorithm.

## IV QUANTUM ERASURE BY TRANSVERSE INDISTINGUISHABILITY

A sequence of steps associated with the experiment of Fig. 1 is now shown in Fig. 3. In Fig. 3$`a`$, we focus on the signal beam where the double-slit plane is far enough from the down-conversion crystal, so that it emits approximately like a point source. From the detector’s point of view, a photon that is detected at a particular point $`P`$ on the detection plane has a probability amplitude $`\psi _1(P,P^{})`$ associated with its passage through slit 1, assuming that it was generated at point $`P^{}`$ on the source plane. Analogously, $`\psi _2(P,P^{})`$ is the amplitude associated with generation at point $`P^{}`$, passage through slit 2 and detection at point $`P`$. For a fixed detection point $`P`$, $`\psi _1(P,P^{})`$ and $`\psi _2(P,P^{})`$ are the diffraction amplitudes of the slits 1 and 2, respectively, on the source plane, as if they were illuminated by a point source located at $`P`$. For the configuration just described, since the source is far away from the slits, the overlap between $`\psi _1(P,P^{})`$ and $`\psi _2(P,P^{})`$ is much larger than the source dimensions. So, passage through slit 1 or slit 2 are indistinguishable possibilities and interference arises. The state of the signal photon after the slits is given by:

$$|\psi _s=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|\psi _1_s+|\psi _2_s).$$
(4)
The first step is accomplished.

Now, if we move the slits screen close to the crystal, $`\psi _1(P,P^{})`$ and $`\psi _2(P,P^{})`$ do not overlap anymore (Fig. 3$`b`$). That is, passage through slit 1 (2) implies that the photon was generated in region $`A`$ ($`B`$) of the source. Since the interaction volume in spontaneous parametric down-conversion behaves like an incoherent source , emission from regions $`A`$ and $`B`$ are, in principle, distinguishable events. No interference is observed in this configuration. The state of the photon after the slits is now labeled by the emitting regions A and B:

$$|\psi _s=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|\psi _1_{A,s}+|\psi _2_{B,s}).$$
(5)
We are going to make use of the idler photon, which was not shown in Fig. 3a, to obtain the which path information. It was shown by Klyshko  that signal and idler photons in spontaneous parametric down-conversion have a high spatial correlation on the source, that is, they are generated in the same point in the interaction region. The idler photon will be labeled by $`A`$($`B`$) if it is emitted at the region $`A`$($`B`$) of the crystal. Then the state of the twin photons is given by:

$$|\mathrm{\Psi }=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|\psi _1_s|A_i+|\psi _2_s|B_i),$$
(6)
where the index $`s`$ stands for the signal beam and $`i`$ for the idler. Step two is accomplished. Note that now, the system is entangled with an auxiliary system, the idler photon, which serves as a label.

The field generated by an incoherent source can be viewed as a statistical ensemble of coherent fields . It is known from diffraction theory that in a transverse plane located in the far zone, the spatial distribution of each realization of this ensemble is proportional to the Fourier transform of its distribution on the source plane. By inverting the Fourier transform, for example with the help of a lens, an image of the source is formed in the far zone, and it is possible to detect which zone ($`A`$ or $`B`$) of the source the idler photon was emitted from.

Let us now see how this path information can be erased. If a small aperture is placed on the idler detection plane, it will act as a spatial filter. In other words, it will band-limit the Fourier transform of each coherent realization of the ensemble. The smaller the aperture, the narrower the spatial bandwidth of the filtered field. Since the details of an image are carried by the high frequency components of its angular spectrum , the strong spatial filtering produced by a small enough aperture will make impossible to retrieve spatial information about the source. Then, this spatial filtering erases which path information from the point of view of the idler detector.

Expanding states $`|A_i`$ and $`|B_i`$ in terms of their transverse Fourier components we have

$`|A_i={\displaystyle 𝒜(𝒒)|𝒒_i𝑑𝒒};`$ (7)
$`|B_i={\displaystyle (𝒒)|𝒒_i𝑑𝒒}.`$ (8)
Detection of the idler photon through a small pinhole corresponds to a projection of the states $`|A_i`$ and $`|B_i`$ onto approximately the same state $`|𝒒_o`$. $`𝒒_o`$ represents a given transverse wave vector component . In the limit of a point detector, it is exactly the same state vector. Then, the state of the twin pair becomes:

$$|\mathrm{\Psi }=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|\psi _1_s+|\psi _2_s)|𝒒_o_i.$$
(9)
Interference is retrieved by performing coincident detection of signal and idler photons (Fig. 3$`c`$). Step three is accomplished.

Again, the above state describes the photon pair just before detection, and it is the passage of the idler photon through the pinhole which projects the system onto that state. When a large aperture is used for the detection of the idler photon, the interference disappears again. The larger the detection area is, the larger is the number of Fourier components that are taken. In the limit where all Fourier components are detected, states $`|A_i`$ and $`|B_i`$ can be completely reconstructed. The state of the system is again given by expression (6) and the idler photon again serves as a label.

In the usual discussions about the quantum eraser, the state of the which-path detector is described in a two-dimensional Hilbert space. To accomplish erasure, that state is projected onto a superposition of two “pointer” states, such that a symmetric superposition gives rise to “fringes”, whereas a antisymmetric one gives rise to “antifringes” . In the context discussed here, the state of the idler photon (the which-path detector) is described by a continuum of modes (its Fourier decomposition). Instead of “fringes” and “antifringes”, we have a continuum of interference patterns labeled by the selected transverse Fourier component $`𝒒_o`$.

## V A DELAYED CHOICE QUANTUM ERASER SCHEME

The experimental set-up described in Fig. 1 can be easily changed, in order to obtain a delayed choice quantum eraser. See Fig. 4. By introducing a beam splitter in the path of the conjugated beam and sending each half to two different detectors, it is possible to choose between interference and non-interference. One of the detectors has a small aperture and the other a large aperture. These detectors and beam splitters can be put very far from the crystal, so that the signal photon passes through the double-slit before the idler photon gets to the beam splitter. A photon count in the large aperture detector, implies in no interference and a photon count in the small aperture detector implies in interference. The decision between interference and no interference is made after the photon has passed through the slits.

In the original experiment, the detection through large and small apertures is not performed simultaneously. However, there are no reasons for the results to be different. In fact, we note that in this scheme, the decision of interference or not is not made in the beam splitter, but in the detector. Finally, it is worth mentioning that our double-slit quantum eraser satisfies all the criteria for a true quantum eraser as stated by Kwiat, Steinberg and Chiao : a delayed choice scheme can be implemented, it employs single particles and the distinguishing information is carried separately from the interfering particle.

## VI CONCLUSION

We have analyzed a double-slit interference experiment from a point of view of a quantum eraser. We show that the measurements performed, followed a certain quantum eraser algorithm. We also show that a delayed choice quantum eraser could be easily obtained by the insertion of a beam splitter on the idler beam and detection with different detection areas. This experiment, was probably the first realization of a quantum eraser dealing with the transverse degrees of freedom of the field.

## VII ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors acknowledge financial support from the Brazilian agencies CNPq, PRONEX, FAPERJ, FUJB and FAPEMIG.