Hubble Constant Measurement from Three Large-separation Quasars Strongly Lensed by Galaxy Clusters

• Published in: The Astrophysical journal Vol. 959; no. 2; pp. 134 - 143
• Main Authors: Napier, Kate, Sharon, Keren, Dahle, Håkon, Bayliss, Matthew, Gladders, Michael D., Mahler, Guillaume, Rigby, Jane R., Florian, Michael
• Format: Journal Article Web Resource
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia The American Astronomical Society 01.12.2023; IOP Publishing
• Subjects: 1319; Astrophysics; Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics; Aérospatiale, astronomie & astrophysique; Constraints; Cosmic microwave background; Cosmology; Galactic clusters; Galaxies; Galaxy clusters; Gravitational lensing; Hubble constant; Hubble Space Telescope; Physical, chemical, mathematical & earth Sciences; Physique, chimie, mathématiques & sciences de la terre; Quasars; Space science, astronomy & astrophysics; Space telescopes; Stars & galaxies; Time lag; Time measurement; Uncertainty
• ISSN: 0004-637X; 1538-4357; 1538-4357
• DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad045a

Tension between cosmic microwave background–based and distance ladder–based determinations of the Hubble constant H 0 motivates the pursuit of independent methods that are not subject to the same systematic effects. A promising alternative, proposed by Refsdal in 1964, relies on the inverse scaling of H 0 with the delay between the arrival times of at least two images of a strongly lensed variable source such as a quasar. To date, Refsdal’s method has mostly been applied to quasars lensed by individual galaxies rather than by galaxy clusters. Using the three quasars strongly lensed by galaxy clusters (SDSS J1004+4112, SDSS J1029+2623, and SDSS J2222+2745) that have both multiband Hubble Space Telescope data and published time delay measurements, we derive H 0 , accounting for the systematic and statistical sources of uncertainty. While a single time delay measurement does not yield a well-constrained H 0 value, analyzing the systems together tightens the constraint. Combining the six time delays measured in the three cluster-lensed quasars gives H 0 = 74.1 ± 8.0 km s −1 Mpc −1 . To reach 1% uncertainty in H 0 , we estimate that a sample size of order of 620 time delay measurements of similar quality as those from SDSS J1004+4112, SDSS J1029+2623, and SDSS J2222+2745 would be needed. Improving the lens modeling uncertainties by a factor of two and a half may reduce the needed sample size to 100 time delays, potentially reachable in the next decade.