It should be possible to find
gravitationally-lensed quasars
in the 2dF GRS spectra.
Cross-correlation techniques can be used to search
for quasars' emission lines, but a more powerful (and more simply implemented)
scheme is to generate large numbers of simulated lens spectra
and to then analyse them using existing software.
If the quasar and galaxy spectra used are taken from the 2dF samples
this method has the enormous advantage of automatically including
various subtleties of the survey data, without the need for detailed
modelling. By identifying the regions of parameter space inhabited
by these spectra, it is possible to characterise the sensitivity of
the lens search (effectively measuring the
parameter discussed in Section 3). More importantly,
the real spectra that fall into the same regions of
parameter space are immediately
identifiable as candidate lenses. Implementation of these techniques
should bring the first positive results within the next year.