Discovery of A Very Bright, Strongly-Lensed z=2 Galaxy in the SDSS DR5

We report on the discovery of a very bright z = 2.00 star-forming galaxy that is strongly lensed by a foreground z = 0.422 luminous red galaxy (LRG). This system was found in a systematic search for bright arcs lensed by LRGs and brightest cluster galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 5 sample. Follow-up observations on the Subaru 8.2m telescope on Mauna Kea and the Astrophysical Research Consortium 3.5m telescope at Apache Point Observatory confirmed the lensing nature of this system. A simple lens model for the system, assuming a singular isothermal ellipsoid mass distribution, yields an Einstein radius of {theta}{sub Ein} = 3.82 {+-} 0.03{double_prime} or 14.8 {+-} 0.1h{sup -1} kpc at the lens redshift. The total projected mass enclosed within the Einstein radius is 2.10 {+-} 0.03 x 10{sup 12}h{sup -1}M{sub {circle_dot}}, and the magnification factor for the source galaxy is 27 {+-} 1. Combining the lens model with our gVriz photometry, we find an (unlensed) star formation rate for the source galaxy of 32 h{sup -1} M{sub {circle_dot}} hr{sup -1}, adopting a fiducial constant star formation rate model with an age of 100 Myr and E(B-V) = 0.25. With an apparent magnitude of r = 19.9, this system is among the very brightest lensed z {ge} 2 galaxies, and provides an excellent opportunity to pursue detailed studies of the physical properties of an individual high-redshift star-forming galaxy