We show how observations of multiply-imaged quasars at high redshift can be used as a probe of dark matter clumps (subhalos with masses < ∼ 10 9 M ⊙ ) within the virialized extent of more massive lensing halos. A large abundance of such satellites is predicted by numerical simulations of galaxy formation in cold dark matter (CDM) cosmogonies. Small-scale structure within galaxy halos affects the flux ratios of the images without appreciably changing their positions. We use numerical simulations to quantify the effect of dark matter substructure on the distribution of magnifications, and find that the magnification ratio of a typical image pair will deviate significantly from the value predicted by a smooth lensing potential if, near the Einstein radius, only a few percent of the lens surface density is contained in subhalos. The angular size of the continuum source dictates the range of subclump masses that can have a detectable effect: to avoid confusion with gravitational microlensing caused by stars in the lens galaxy, the background source must be larger than the optical continuum-emitting region of a QSO. We also find that substructure will cause distortions to images on milli-arcsecond scales and bias the distribution of QSO magnification ratios -two other possible methods of detection.

We demonstrate that the flux ratios of 4-image lensed quasars provide a powerful means of probing the small scale structure of Dark Matter (DM) halos. A family of smooth lens models can precisely predict certain combinations of flux ratios using only the positions of the images and lens as inputs. Using 5 observed lens systems we show that real galaxies cannot be described by smooth singular isothermal ellipsoids, nor by the more general elliptical power-law potentials. Large scale distortions from the elliptical models can not yet be ruled out. Nevertheless we find, by comparing with simulations, that the data can be accounted for by a significant (≥ 5 − 10%) amount of dark substructures within a projected distance of several kpc from the center of lenses. This interpretation favors the Cold Dark Matter (CDM) model other the warm or self-interacting DM models.

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Spatially resolved spectroscopic data from the CIRPASS integral field unit (IFU) on Gemini are used to measure the gravitational lensing of the 4-image quasar Q2237+0305 on different size scales. A method for measuring the substructure present in the lens using observations at multiple wavelengths is demonstrated to be very effective and independent of many of the degeneracies inherent in previous methods. The magnification ratios of the QSO's narrow line region (NLR) and broad line region (BLR) are measured and found to be disagree with each other and with the published radio and mid-infrared magnification ratios. The disagreement between the BLR ratios and the radio/mid-infrared ratios is interpreted as microlensing by stars in the lens galaxy of the BLR. This implies that the mid-infrared emission region is larger than the BLR and the BLR is < ∼ 0.1 pc in size. We find a small difference in the shape of the Hβ line in image A when compared to the other images. We consider this difference too small and symmetric to be considered strong evidence for rotation or large scale infall in the Hβ emission region. The disagreement between the radio/mid-infrared ratios and the NLR ratios is interpreted as a signature of substructure on a larger scale, possibly the missing small scale structure predicted by the standard cold dark matter (CDM) model. Extensive lensing simulations are performed to obtain a lower limit on the amount of substructure that is required to cause this discrepancy as a function of its mass and the radial profile of the host lens. The substructure surface density is degenerate with the radial profile of the host lens, but if the expectations of the CDM model are taken into account certain radial profiles and substructure surface densities can be ruled out. A substructure mass scale as large as 10 8 M ⊙ is strongly disfavored while 10 4 M ⊙ is too small if the radio and mid-infrared emission regions have the expected sizes of ∼ 10 pc. The standard elliptical isothermal lens mass profile is not compatible with a substructure surface density of Σ sub < 280 M ⊙ pc −2 at the 95% confidence level. This is 1 Hubble Fellow -2 -4 − 7% of the galaxy's surface density (depending on which image position is used to evaluate this). The required substructure surface density at the required mass scale is high in comparison with the present expectations within the CDM model. Lens mass profiles that are flatter than isothermal -where the surface density in dark matter is higher at the image positions -are compatible with smaller quantities of substructure.

Large-scale imaging surveys will increase the number of galaxy-scale strong lensing candidates by maybe three orders of magnitudes beyond the number known today. Finding these rare objects will require picking them out of at least tens of millions of images, and deriving scientific results from them will require quantifying the efficiency and bias of any search method. To achieve these objectives automated methods must be developed. Because gravitational lenses are rare objects, reducing false positives will be particularly important. We present a description and results of an open gravitational lens finding challenge. Participants were asked to classify 100,000 candidate objects as to whether they were gravitational lenses or not with the goal of developing better automated methods for finding lenses in large data sets. A variety of methods were used including visual inspection, arc and ring finders, support vector machines (SVM) and convolutional neural networks (CNN). We find that many of the methods will be easily fast enough to analyse the anticipated data flow. In test data, several methods are able to identify upwards of half the lenses after applying some thresholds on the lens characteristics such as lensed image brightness, size or contrast with the lens galaxy without making a single false-positive identification. This is significantly better than direct inspection by humans was able to do. Having multi-band, ground based data is found to be better for this purpose than single-band space based data with lower noise and higher resolution, suggesting that multi colour data is crucial. Multi-band space based data will be superior to ground based data. The most difficult challenge for a lens finder is differentiating between rare, irregular and ring-like face-on galaxies and true gravitational lenses. The degree to which the efficiency and biases of lens finders can be quantified largely depends on the realism of the simulated data on which the finders are trained.Article number, page 1 of 26