STRONG-LENSING ANALYSIS of the POWERFUL LENSING CLUSTER MACS J2135.2-0102 (z = 0.33)

We present a light-traces-mass (LTM) strong-lensing model of the massive lensing cluster MACS J2135.2-0102 (z = 0.33; hereafter MACS2135), known in part for hosting the cosmic eye galaxy lens. MACS2135 is also known to multiply lens a z = 2.3 sub-millimeter galaxy near the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG), as well as a prominent, triply imaged system at a large radius of ∼37″ south of the BCG. We use the latest available Hubble imaging to construct an accurate lensing model for this cluster, identifying six new multiply imaged systems with the guidance of our LTM method, so that we have roughly quadrupled the number of lensing constraints. We determine that MACS2135 is among the top lensing clusters known, comparable in size to the Hubble Frontier Fields. For a source at z_s = 2.32, we find an effective Einstein radius of &ominus_e 27 ± 3′, enclosing 1.12 ± 0.16 × 10¹⁴M_⊙. We make our lens model, including mass and magnification maps, publicly available, in anticipation of searches for high-z galaxies with the James Webb Space Telescope, for which this cluster is a compelling target.