Examinando por Autor "McMahon R."

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    Gravitationally lensed quasars in Gaia – IV. 150 new lenses, quasar pairs, and projected quasars
    (Oxford University Press, 2023-04-01) Lemon C.; Anguita T.; Auger-Williams M.W.; Courbin F.; Galan A.; McMahon R.; Neira F.; Oguri M.; Schechter P.; Shajib A.; Treu T.; Agnello A.; Spiniello C.
    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. © 2023 Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
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    The STRong lensing Insights into the Dark Energy Survey (STRIDES) 2016 follow-up campaign - II. New quasar lenses from double component fitting
    (Oxford University Press, 2018-11) Anguita T.; Schechter P.L.; Kuropatkin N.; Morgan N.D.; Ostrovski F.; Abramson L.E.; Agnello A.; Apostolovski Y.; Fassnacht C.D.; Hsueh J.W.; Motta V.; Rojas K.; Rusu C.E.; Treu T.; Williams P.; Auger M.; Buckley-Geer E.; Lin H.; McMahon R.; Abbott T.M.C.; Allam S.; Annis J.; Bernstein R.A.; Bertin E.; Brooks D.; Burke D.L.; Carnero Rosell A.; Carrasco-Kind M.; Carretero J.; Cunha C.E.; D'Andrea C.B.; De Vicente J.; Depoy D.L.; Desai S.; DIehl H.T.; Doel P.; Flaugher B.; García-Bellido J.; Gerdes D.W.; Gschwend J.; Hartley W.G.; Hollowood D.L.; Honscheid K.; James D.J.; Kuehn K.; Lima M.; Maia M.A.G.; Miquel R.; Plazas A.A.; Sanchez E.; Scarpine V.; Smith M.; Soares-Santos M.; Sobreira F.; Suchyta E.; Tarle G.; Walker A.R.; Gruent, D.
    We report upon the follow-up of 34 candidate lensed quasars found in the Dark Energy Survey using NTT EFOSC, Magellan-IMACS, KECK-ESI, and SOAR-SAMI. These candidates were selected by a combination of double component fitting, morphological assessment, and colour analysis. Most systems followed up are indeed composed of at least one quasar image and 13 with two or more quasar images: two lenses, four projected binaries, and seven nearly identical quasar pairs (NIQs). The two systems confirmed as genuine gravitationally lensed quasars are one quadruple at $z$s = 1.713 and one double at $z$s = 1.515. Lens modelling of these two systems reveals that both systems require very little contribution from the environment to reproduce the image configuration. Nevertheless, small flux anomalies can be observed in one of the images of the quad. Further observations of nine inconclusive systems (including seven NIQs) will allow to confirm (or not) their gravitational lens nature. © 2018 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.