Abstract
Although individual occurrences of gravitational lensing can provide some constraints on the mass distribution in the deflecting object, statistical samples of lensed quasars are necessary to provide a fuller description of the overall mass distribution in the universe. To date, optical searches for multiply imaged quasars have been hampered by poor resolution (≳ 2–3″), unknown selection biases in the determination of the quasar samples, and relatively small numbers of objects. However, dramatic improvements in all these areas are now possible and a new series of optical gravitational lens searches are underway offering the potential for a large increase in the number of bona fide gravitational lensing systems over the next few years. This paper summarizes the status of optical gravitational lensing surveys and reviews the problems specific to this type of search. The techniques and preliminary results from the Gravitational Lens Survey from the Automatic Plate Measuring (APM) Facility are used to illustrate the potential of the new generation of surveys. Some applications of the lens samples now being compiled are discussed.
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Webster, R.L., Hewett, P.C. (1989). Optical searches for gravitational lenses. In: Moran, J.M., Hewitt, J.N., Lo, K.Y. (eds) Gravitational Lenses. Lecture Notes in Physics, vol 330. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-51061-3_50
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-51061-3_50
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