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N.D. Morgan (MIT), L. Wisotzki (Hamburg)
Optical searches for single-galaxy gravitational lenses make use of the so-called "magnification bias" effect: since a lensing event boosts the observed flux from the source quasar, lensed quasars are systematically brighter than unlensed quasars of similar redshifts. A quantitative description of this effect not only aids in the discovery of new lenses, but can help in discriminating cosmological models based on lensing statistics.
In this study, we present magnification bias calculations using a newly determined quasar number-count function as derived from the combined Hamburg/ESO, LBQS and AAT quasar surveys. We compare these new bias calculations and the resulting quasar lensing probabilities to existing lensing statistics studies and discuss its implications for forthcoming gravitational lens searches in new major quasar samples.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: ndmorgan@mit.edu