A variable active galactic nucleus at z = 2.06 triply-imaged by the galaxy cluster MACS J0035.4−2015

Support by grant 2020750 from the United States- Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) and grant 2109066 from the United States National Science Foundation (NSF), and by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Israel. J.C. acknowl- edges funding from the ‘FirstGalaxies’ Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant agreement No. 789056). E.C.L. acknowledges support of an STFC Webb Fellowship (ST/W001438/1). K.K. acknowledges the support by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP17H06130 and the NAOJ ALMA Scientific Research Grant Number 2017–06B. D.E. acknowledges support from a Beatriz Galindo senior fellowship (BG20/00224) from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, projects PID2020-114414GB-100 and PID2020-113689GB-I00 financed by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, project P20-00334 financed by the Junta de Andaluc´ıa, and project A-FQM-510-UGR20 of the FEDER/Junta de Andaluc´ıa-Consejer´ıa de Transformaci ´on Econ ´omica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades. G.E.M. ac- knowledges financial support from the Villum Young Investiga- tor grant 37440 and 13160 and the The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), funded by the Danish National Research Foundation under grant No. 140. F.E.B. acknowledges support from ANID- Chile BASAL CATA FB210003, FONDECYT Regular 1200495 and 1190818, and Millennium Science Initiative Program–ICN12 009. K.K.K. acknowledges support from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.We report the discovery of a triply imaged active galactic nucleus (AGN), lensed by the galaxy cluster MACS J0035.4−2015 (z d = 0.352). The object is detected in Hubble Space Telescope imaging taken for the RELICS program. It appears to have a quasi-stellar nucleus consistent with a point-source, with a de-magnified radius of re ≲ 100 pc. The object is spectroscopically confirmed to be an AGN at z spec = 2.063 ± 0.005 showing broad rest-frame UV emission lines, and detected in both X-ray observations with Chandra and in ALCS ALMA band 6 (1.2 mm) imaging. It has a relatively faint rest-frame UV luminosity for a quasar-like object, MUV, 1450 = −19.7 ± 0.2. The object adds to just a few quasars or other X-ray sources known to be multiply lensed by a galaxy cluster. Some diffuse emission from the host galaxy is faintly seen around the nucleus, and there is a faint object nearby sharing the same multiple-imaging symmetry and geometric redshift, possibly an interacting galaxy or a star-forming knot in the host. We present an accompanying lens model, calculate the magnifications and time delays, and infer the physical properties of the source. We find the rest-frame UV continuum and emission lines to be dominated by the AGN, and the optical emission to be dominated by the host galaxy of modest stellar mass M✶ ≃ 109.2 M⊙. We also observe some variation in the AGN emission with time, which may suggest that the AGN used to be more active. This object adds a low-redshift counterpart to several relatively faint AGN recently uncovered at high redshifts with HST and JWST.Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades 13160, 37440Science and Technology Facilities Council ST/W001438/1 STFCEuropean Research Council ERCFondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico 1190818, 1200495, ICN12_009 FONDECYTMinisterio de Ciencia e Innovación MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, P20-00334, PID2020-113689GB-I00, PID2020-114414GB-100 MICINNHorizon 2020 789056European Regional Development Fund ERDFJunta de Andalucía A-FQM-510-UGR2