Strong lens search in the ESO public Survey KiDS

TL;DR

This paper reports a systematic search for strong gravitational lens candidates in the KiDS survey, identifying 18 new candidates through visual inspection, leveraging high-quality imaging and color data, with spectroscopic follow-up needed for confirmation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel visual inspection method applied to KiDS data to identify strong lens candidates, expanding the catalog of potential gravitational lenses.

Findings

Identified 18 new strong lens candidates in KiDS data.

Utilized high-quality VST/OmegaCAM images for candidate selection.

Demonstrated the effectiveness of visual inspection in lens detection.

Abstract

We have started a systematic search of strong lens candidates in the ESO public survey KiDS based on the visual inspection of massive galaxies in the redshift range $0.1<z<0.5$. As a pilot program we have inspected 100 sq. deg., which overlap with SDSS and where there are known lenses to use as a control sample. Taking advantage of the superb image quality of VST/OmegaCAM, the colour information and accurate model subtracted images, we have found 18 new lens candidates, for which spectroscopic confirmation will be needed to confirm their lensing nature and study the mass profile of the lensing galaxies.