The Effect of Central Baryonic Cores in Dark Halos on the Evaluation of Strong Lensing Probabilities

We present an estimate of the strong lensing probability by dark ha-los, with emphasis on the role of the baryonic matter arising purely from radiative cooling. We treat the contribution of the cooled baryons optimistically with all the cooled baryons confined within a central core, and including no feedback process from stellar evolution. Our two-component model provides a strong lensing probability that is in good agreement with the observed distribution of multiple images of quasars, provided that the cooled baryons are deposited within a spherical region of radius of 0.1 times the virial radius and follow an isothermal profile. It is pointed out that strong lensing may be used as an additional probe of baryon physics in dark halos though this may meanwhile complicate the test of the inner density profiles of dark matter in halos using the observed strong lensing probability.