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B. Pindor, E. L. Turner (Princeton), S. Wyithe (Princeton/Melbourne), J. Annis (Fermilab), A. Cooray (Chicago), S. Dodelson (Fermilab), J. Frieman, D. Johnston (Chicago), R. Lupton (Princeton), T. McKay, S. Monk (Michigan), H. Newberg (Fermilab), G. Richards (Penn State), H. Rix (MPIA), R. Scranton (Chicago), E. Sheldon (Michigan), SDSS Collaboration
The 104 sq. deg. survey area of the SDSS is expected to contain of order 1000 strongly-lensed QSO. The identification of a large and well-defined sub-sample of these systems would be of great interest, both due to utility of such a sample as a cosmological probe, as well as due to the plenitude of new systems it would furnish for detailed individual study. Developing an algorithm which will reliably pick out gravitational lenses as candidates for spectroscopic follow-up and understanding the selection function of such an algorithm are essential in obtaining a statistically robust sample. Efforts to develop such an algorithm based upon a combination of colour and morphological measurements, as well as a prescription for characterizing the selection function through the use of Monte Carlo simulations, are described. The results of spectroscopic follow-up of selected candidates using the APO 3.5m telescope are also presented. This work is supported by NSF grant AST98-02802.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: pindor@astro.princeton.edu