TDCOSMO

XXIII. Measurement of the Hubble constant from the doubly lensed quasar HE 1104−1805

¹ Research Center for the Early Universe, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo Bunkyo-ku Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
² Institute of Physics, Laboratory of Astrophysics, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Observatoire de Sauverny 1290 Versoix, Switzerland
³ Institut de Ciències del Cosmos (ICCUB), Universitat de Barcelona (IEEC-UB) Martí i Franquès 1 08028 Barcelona, Spain
⁴ Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA) Passeig de Lluís Companys 23 08010 Barcelona, Spain
⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, UC Davis 1 Shields Ave. Davis CA 95616, USA
⁶ Technical University of Munich, TUM School of Natural Sciences, Physics Department James-Franck-Straße 1 85748 Garching, Germany
⁷ Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik Karl-Schwarzschild Straße 1 85748 Garching, Germany
⁸ Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics, ETH Zurich Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 27 CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland
⁹ STAR Institute, Liège Université, Quartier Agora – Allée du six Août 19c B-4000 Liège, Belgium
¹⁰ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California Los Angeles CA 90095, USA
¹¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University Stony Brook NY 11794, USA
¹² Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory PO Box 500 Batavia IL 60510, USA
¹³ Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Chicago Chicago IL 60637, USA
¹⁴ Sub-Department of Astrophysics, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Denys Wilkinson Building Keble Road Oxford OX1 3RH, UK
¹⁵ European Southern Observatory Alonso de Córdova 3107 Vitacura Santiago, Chile
¹⁶ Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Physics, Stockholm University SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
¹⁷ Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago Chicago IL 60637, USA
¹⁸ Center for Astronomy, Space Science and Astrophysics, Independent University Bangladesh Dhaka 1229, Bangladesh
¹⁹ Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen Jagtvej 128 DK-2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark
²⁰ Instituto de Fìsica y Astronomía, Universidad de Valparaíso Av. Gran Bretaña 1111 Playa Ancha Valparaíso, Chile
²¹ Department of Astronomy, School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai 200240, China
²² Shanghai Key Laboratory for Particle Physics and Cosmology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai 200240, China
²³ Key Laboratory for Particle Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology, Ministry of Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai 200240, China

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Received: 15 July 2025
Accepted: 2 December 2025

Abstract

Time-delay cosmography leverages strongly lensed quasars to measure the Universe’s current expansion rate, H₀, independently from other methods. The latest TDCOSMO milestone measurement primarily used quadruply lensed quasars for their mass profile constraints. However, doubly lensed quasars, being more abundant and offering precise time delays, could expand the sample by a factor of 5, significantly advancing towards a 1% precision measurement of H₀. We present the first TDCOSMO analysis of a doubly imaged source, HE 1104−1805, including the measurement of the four necessary ingredients. First, by combining 17 years of data from the SMARTS, Euler, and WFI telescopes, we measured a time delay of 176.3^+11.4_−10.3 days. Second, using MUSE data, we extracted stellar velocity dispersion measurements in three radial bins with 5% to 13% precision. Third, employing F160W HST imaging for lens modelling and marginalising over various modelling choices, we measured the Fermat potential difference between the images. Fourth, using wide-field imaging, we measured the convergence added by objects not included in the lens modelling. By combining these four ingredients, we measured the time delay distance and the angular diameter distance to the deflector, favouring a power-law mass model over a baryonic and dark matter composite model. The measurement was performed blindly to prevent experimenter bias and resulted in a Hubble constant of H₀ = ^+5.8_−5.0 × λ_int km s⁻¹Mpc⁻¹, where λ_int is the internal mass sheet degeneracy parameter. This is in agreement with the TDCOSMO-2025 milestone and its precision for λ_int = 1 is comparable to that obtained with the best-observed quadruply lensed quasars (4–6%). This work is a stepping stone towards a precise measurement of H₀ using a large sample of doubly lensed quasars, supplementing the current sample. The next TDCOSMO milestone paper will include this system in its hierarchical analysis, constraining λ_int and H₀ jointly with multiple lenses.