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D. B. Haarsma, K. J. Hoekema (Calvin College), J. N. Hewitt (MIT), G. I. Langston (NRAO)
(The following is the same as an abstract submitted for the 197th AAS meeting in January 2001, which could not be presented due to illness.)
The time delay of a gravitational lens, when combined with a model of the lens mass distribution and other information, yields the angular diameter distance to the lens. The gravitational lens system 2016+112 has the highest redshift lens of any system discovered so far, and thus its distance would yield important information not only about the Hubble parameter, but also about the mass density of the universe and the cosmological constant. We have made monthly observations of 2016+112 at the VLA (during favorable arrays) since June 1999 at 3.6 and 6 cm, which we will combine with archive data from 1987-1993. This poster gives a status report on the effort to detect variability and determine the time delay of the lens.
We acknowledge the support of a Cottrell College Science Award from Research Corporation.