~100 Gravitationally confirmed lensed quasars Virtual Observatory Resource

Authors
  1. Lemon C.
  2. Anguita T.
  3. Auger-williams M.W.
  4. Courbin F.
  5. Galan A.,Mcmahon R.
  6. Neira F.
  7. Oguri M.
  8. Schechter P.
  9. Shajib A.
  10. Treu T.,Agnello A.
  11. Spiniello C.
  12. Published by
    CDS
Abstract

We report the spectroscopic follow-up of 175 lensed quasar candidates selected using Gaia Data Release 2 observations following Paper III of this series. Systems include 86 confirmed lensed quasars and a further 17 likely lensed quasars based on imaging and/or similar spectra. We also confirm 11 projected quasar pairs and 11 physical quasar pairs, while 25 systems are left as unclassified quasar pairs - pairs of quasars at the same redshift, which could be either distinct quasars or potential lensed quasars. Especially interesting objects include eight quadruply imaged quasars of which two have BAL sources, an apparent triple, and a doubly lensed LoBaL quasar. The source redshifts and image separations of these new lenses range between 0.65-3.59 and 0.78-6.23 arcsec, respectively. We compare the known population of lensed quasars to an updated mock catalogue at image separations between 1 and 4 arcsec, showing a very good match at z < 1.5. At z > 1.5, only 47 per cent of the predicted number are known, with 56 per cent of these missing lenses at image separations below 1.5 arcsec. The missing higher redshift, small-separation systems will have fainter lensing galaxies, and are partially explained by the unclassified quasar pairs and likely lenses presented in this work, which require deeper imaging. Of the 11 new reported projected quasar pairs, 5 have impact parameters below 10 kpc, almost tripling the number of such systems, which can probe the innermost regions of quasar host galaxies through absorption studies. We also report four new lensed galaxies discovered through our searches, with source redshifts ranging from 0.62 to 2.79.

Keywords
  1. quasars
  2. gravitational-lensing
  3. galaxies
  4. spectroscopy
  5. visible-astronomy
  6. astrometry
  7. redshifted
  8. photometry
  9. classification
  10. galaxy-classification-systems
Bibliographic source Bibcode
2023MNRAS.520.3305L
See also HTML
https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/MNRAS/520/3305
IVOA Identifier IVOID
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/520/3305

Access

Web browser access HTML
https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/MNRAS/520/3305
https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/MNRAS/520/3305
http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/MNRAS/520/3305
IVOA Table Access TAP
https://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tap
Run SQL-like queries with TAP-enabled clients (e.g., TOPCAT).
IVOA Cone Search SCS
For use with a cone search client (e.g., TOPCAT).
https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/J/MNRAS/520/3305/table1?
https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/conesearch/J/MNRAS/520/3305/table1?
http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/conesearch/J/MNRAS/520/3305/table1?

History

2026-04-27T09:44:51Z
Resource record created
2026-04-27T08:56:25Z
Updated
2026-04-27T09:44:51Z
Created

Contact

Name
CDS support team
Postal Address
CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
E-Mail
cds-question@unistra.fr