Discovery of a Multiply-Lensed Submillimeter Galaxy in Early HerMES Herschel/SPIRE Data

Abstract

We report the discovery of a bright (f(250μm) > 400 mJy), multiply-lensed submillimeter galaxy \ in Herschel/SPIRE Science Demonstration Phase data from the HerMES project. Interferometric 880μm\ Submillimeter Array observations resolve at least four images with a large separation of 9. A high-resolution adaptive optics Kp image with Keck/NIRC2 clearly shows strong lensing arcs. Follow-up spectroscopy gives a redshift of z=2.9575, and the lensing model gives a total magnification of μ 11 1. The large image separation allows us to study the multi-wavelength spectral energy distribution (SED) of the lensed source unobscured by the central lensing mass. The far-IR/millimeter-wave SED is well described by a modified blackbody fit with an unusually warm dust temperature, 88 3 K. We derive a lensing-corrected total IR luminosity of (1.43 0.09) × 1013\, L, implying a star formation rate of 2500\, M\, yr-1. However, models primarily developed from brighter galaxies selected at longer wavelengths are a poor fit to the full optical-to-millimeter SED. A number of other strongly lensed systems have already been discovered in early Herschel data, and many more are expected as additional data are collected.

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