CLASS B 1359 + 154: Modelling lensing by a group of galaxies

The recently discovered gravitationally lensed system CLASS B1359 +154 appears to have six detectable images of a single background source at a redshift of 3.235. A group of galaxies acts as the lens, at a redshift of ∼ 1. The present work identifies two distinct, physically plausible image configurations, a 7-image one and a 9-image one. Mass models are constructed corresponding to realizations of these two configurations. Both models call for, in addition to non-singular galaxy-type lenses, a larger scale mass component that resembles the extended dark matter distributions seen in relatively low-redshift galaxy groups. It is presently observationally impossible to study the extended X-ray emission from a group at such a high redshift, hence lensing studies are of some interest. A lensed system with a high image multiplicity does not necessarily admit of a unique lensing interpretation; discrimination is possible with additional observable details (e.g., the image parities, which are uncommon among even the simpler systems).