The Sloan Bright Arcs Survey: Four Strongly Lensed Galaxies with Redshift >2

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery and analysis of four bright, strongly-lensed galaxies with redshifts greater than 2, identified through systematic searches in SDSS data, with follow-up spectroscopy and imaging to determine their properties.

Contribution

It presents the identification and detailed characterization of four high-redshift, strongly-lensed galaxies, including their magnitudes, redshifts, Einstein radii, and lensing masses, expanding the sample of known bright lensed galaxies.

Findings

Four bright, high-redshift lensed galaxies identified.

Measured Einstein radii range from 5.0 to 12.7 arcseconds.

Derived lensing galaxy masses based on Einstein radii.

Abstract

We report the discovery of four very bright, strongly-lensed galaxies found via systematic searches for arcs in Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 5 and 6. These were followed-up with spectroscopy and imaging data from the Astrophysical Research Consortium 3.5m telescope at Apache Point Observatory and found to have redshift $z>2.0$. With isophotal magnitudes $r = 19.2 - 20.4$ and $3\arcsec$-diameter magnitudes $r = 20.0 - 20.6$, these systems are some of the brightest and highest surface brightness lensed galaxies known in this redshift range. In addition to the magnitudes and redshifts, we present estimates of the Einstein radii, which range from $5.0 \arcsec$ to $12.7 \arcsec$, and use those to derive the enclosed masses of the lensing galaxies.