Estimates of the Global Masses of Two Distant Galaxies Using a New Type of Astrophysical Mass “Laboratory”

We have applied the polarization alignment-breaking method of measuring global masses of galaxies (developed by Kronberg et al.) to new radio and deep optical images of the strong jet quasar 3C 9 at z = 2.012. We demonstrate the power of this previously unexploited technique by making estimates of the global mass of two intervening galaxies: at z = 0.25 and z ≳ 1.