A search for edge-on galaxy lenses in the CFHT Legacy Survey

TL;DR

This paper develops an automated method to identify gravitational lensing events caused by edge-on disk galaxies in the CFHTLS Wide fields, expanding the catalog of known galaxy lenses.

Contribution

It introduces a novel automated search technique specifically targeting edge-on galaxy lenses in wide-field optical surveys.

Findings

Successfully identified new edge-on galaxy lens candidates.

Enhanced the inventory of galaxy lenses beyond previous surveys.

Demonstrated effectiveness of automated search in large datasets.

Abstract

[ABRIDGED] The new generation of wide field optical imaging like the Canada France Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS) enables discoveries of all types of gravitational lenses present in the sky. The Strong Lensing Legacy Survey (SL2S) project has started an inventory, respectively for clusters or groups of galaxies lenses, and for Einstein rings around distant massive ellipticals. Here we attempt to extend this inventory by finding lensing events produced by massive edge-on disk galaxies which remains a poorly documented class of lenses. We implement and test an automated search procedure of edge-on galaxy lenses in the CFHTLS Wide fields with magnitude 18