Conclusions

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.

© Copyright Astronomical Society of Australia 1997