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P.L. Schechter, N.D. Morgan (MIT), R.H. Becker, M.D. Gregg (UC Davis & IGPP/LLNL), D.J. Helfand (Columbia), R.L. White (STScI)
We report the discovery of the close-separation (0.7") double quasar pair FBQ 1633 from the FIRST Bright QSO Survey. In general, such quasar pairs can result from a physical quasar binary, or from multiple imaging of a single quasar via gravitational lensing. Here we present our ground-based optical imaging, VLA radio mapping, and spectral analysis for FBQ 1633 and discuss the likely nature of the system in terms of the binary/lens hypothesis. We find that although the optical image separation and flux ratios are consistent with gravitational lensing, the identification of only a single radio component and failure to detect the lensing galaxy with HST are difficult to reconcile under the lensing hypothesis.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: ndmorgan@mit.edu