The Initial Mass Function in the Nearest Strong Lenses from SNELLS: Assessing the Consistency of Lensing, Dynamical, and Spectroscopic Constraints

Understand

We present new observations of the three nearest early-type galaxy (ETG) strong lenses discovered in the SINFONI Nearby Elliptical Lens Locator Survey (SNELLS).

• Based on their lensing masses, these ETGs were inferred to have a stellar initial mass function (IMF) consistent with that of the Milky Way, not the bottom-heavy IMF that has been reported as typical for high-$\sigma$ ETGs based on lensing, dynamical, and stellar population synthesis techniques.
• We use these unique systems to test the consistency of IMF estimates derived from different methods.
• We first estimate the stellar $M_*/L$ using lensing and stellar dynamics.