Lensing and the Centers of Distant Early-Type Galaxies

Abstract

Gravitational lensing provides a unique probe of the inner 10-1000 pc of distant galaxies (z=0.2-1). Lens theory predicts that every strong lens system should have a faint image near the center of the lens galaxy, which should be visible in radio lenses but have not been observed. We study these ``core'' images using models derived from the stellar distributions in nearby early-type galaxies. We find that realistic galaxies predict a remarkably wide range of core images, with lensing magnifications spanning some six orders of magnitude. More concentrated galaxies produce fainter core images, although not with any simple, quantitative, model independent relation. Some real galaxies have diffuse cores and predict bright core images (magnification mu>~0.1), but more common are galaxies that predict faint core images (mu<~0.001). Thus, stellar mass distributions alone are probably concentrated enough to explain the lack of observed core images, and may require observational sensitivity to improve by an order of magnitude before detections of core images become common. Two-image lenses will tend to have brighter core images than four-image lenses, so they will be the better targets for finding core images and exploiting these tools for studying the central mass distributions of distant galaxies.