Discovery of the Lensed Quasar System DES J0408-5354

H. Lin, Elizabeth J. Buckley-Geer, Adriano Agnello, Fernanda Ostrovski, R. G. McMahon, B. D. Nord, Nikolay Kuropatkin, Douglas L. Tucker, T. Treu, J. H. H. Chan, Sherry H. Suyu, H. Thomas Diehl, T. Collett, M. S. S. Gill, Anupreeta More, A. Amara, Matthew W. Auger, Frederic Courbin, Christopher D. Fassnacht, Josh FriemanPhilip J. Marshall, Georges Meylan, Cristian E. Rusu, Timothy M. C. Abbott, Filipe B. Abdalla, S. Allam, Manda Banerji, Keith Bechtol, A. Benoit-Lévy, Emmanuel Bertin, David Brooks, D. L. Burke, Aurelio Carnero Rosell, Matias Carrasco Kind, Jorge Carretero, Francisco Javier Castander, Martin Crocce, C. B. D'Andrea, Luiz A. N. da Costa, Sunali Desai, Jörg P. Dietrich, Tim F. Eifler, David A. Finley, Brenna Flaugher, Pablo Fosalba, J. García-Bellido, Enrique Gaztanaga, David W. Gerdes, Daniel A. Goldstein, D. Thomas, Dark Energy Survey Collaboration

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Abstract

We report the discovery and spectroscopic confirmation of the quad-like lensed quasar system DES J0408-5354 found in the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Year 1 (Y1) data. This system was discovered during a search for DES Y1 strong lensing systems using a method that identified candidates as red galaxies with multiple blue neighbors. DES J0408-5354 consists of a central red galaxy surrounded by three bright (i < 20) blue objects and a fourth red object. Subsequent spectroscopic observations using the Gemini South telescope confirmed that the three blue objects are indeed the lensed images of a quasar with redshift z = 2.375, and that the central red object is an early-type lensing galaxy with redshift z = 0.597. DES J0408-5354 is the first quad lensed quasar system to be found in DES and begins to demonstrate the potential of DES to discover and dramatically increase the sample size of these very rare objects.
Original languageEnglish
Article numberL15
JournalAstrophysical Journal Letters
Volume838
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 27 Mar 2017

Keywords

  • astro-ph.GA
  • astro-ph.CO
  • RCUK
  • STFC

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