  An exquisite gravitational arc with a radius of 2.1" has been discovered
around the z = 0.938 field elliptical galaxy CFRS03.1077 during HST
observations of Canada-France Redshift Survey (CFRS) fields. Spectroscopic
observations of the arc show that the redshift of the resolved lensed galaxy is
z = 2.941. This gravitational lens-source system is well-fitted using the
position angle and ellipticity derived from the visible matter distribution and
an isothermal mass profile with a mass corresponding to sigma =387+-5 km/s.
Surprisingly, given the evidence for passive evolution of elliptical galaxies,
this is in good agreement with an estimate based on the fundamental plane for z
= 0 ellipticals. This, perhaps, indicates that this galaxy has not shared in
the significant evolution observed for average elliptical galaxies at z ~ 1. A
second elliptical galaxy with similar luminosity from the CFRS survey, CFRS
14.1311 at z=0.807, is also a lens but in this case the lens model gives a much
smaller mass-to-light ratio, i.e., it appears to confirm the expected
evolution. This suggests that this pair of field elliptical galaxies may have
very different evolutionary histories, a significant result if confirmed.
Clearly, CFRS03.1077 demonstrates that these "Einstein rings" are powerful
probes of high redshift galaxies.
