WG021416.37-210535.3, a quadruply lensed quasar in three public surveys

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of a new quadruply lensed quasar in the Southern Hemisphere, identified through combined data from multiple wide-field surveys and high-resolution Gaia imaging.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method for discovering lensed quasars using multi-survey data integration and Gaia's high spatial resolution.

Findings

Discovery of a new quadruply lensed quasar WG0214-2105

Demonstration of effective multi-survey data combination for lens detection

Identification of the quasar's unique IR and UV properties

Abstract

The Southern Hemisphere has just recently begun to be charted by wide-field surveys, with a sufficient depth and image quality to enable the discovery of strongly lensed quasars. The quadruply imaged quasar WG0214-2105 (r.a.=02:14:16.37, dec.=-21:05:35.3) is a previously unknown lens, with `blue' mid-IR colors and high UV deficit, found in the intersection of three survey footprints: the Dark Energy Survey public DR1 (DES, Abbott et al. 2018), The VST-ATLAS (Shanks et al. 2015) and Pan-STARRS (Chambers et al. 2016). Its discovery relied on high spatial resolution from the Gaia mission (Lindegren et al. 2016) and mid-IR color preselection in the WISE catalog (Wright et al. 2010).