Gravitational Lens Time Delays Using Polarization Monitoring

Abstract

Gravitational lens time delays provide a means of measuring the expansion of the Universe at high redshift (and therefore in the ‘Hubble flow’) that is independent of local calibrations. It was hoped that many of the radio lenses found in the JVAS/CLASS survey would yield time delays as these were selected to have flat spectra and are dominated by multiple compact components. However, despite extensive monitoring with the Very Large Array (VLA), time delays have only been measured for three of these systems (out of 22). We have begun a programme to reanalyse the existing VLA monitoring data with the goal of producing light curves in polarized flux and polarization position angle, either to improve delay measurements or to find delays for new sources. Here, we present preliminary results on the lens system B1600+434 which demonstrate the presence of correlated and substantial polarization variability in each image.

Keywords

• gravitational lensing
• cosmology