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A. Agnello

Publications and source records attributed to A. Agnello.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2020

Mixture Models for Photometric Redshifts

Determining photometric redshifts to high accuracy is paramount to measure distances in wide-field cosmological experiments. With only photometric information at hand, photo-zs are prone to systematic uncertainties in the intervening extinction and the unknown underlying spectral-energy distribution of different astrophysical sources. Here, we aim to resolve these model degeneracies and obtain a clear separation between intrinsic physical properties of astrophysical sources and extrinsic systematics. We aim at estimates of the full photo-z probability distributions, and their uncertainties. We perform a probabilistic photo-z determination using Mixture Density Networks (MDN). The training data-set is composed of optical ($griz$) point-spread-function and model magnitudes and extinction measurements from the SDSS-DR15, and WISE midinfrared ($3.4 μ$m and $4.6 μ$m) model magnitudes. We use Infinite Gaussian Mixture models to classify the objects in our data-set as stars, galaxies or quasars, and to determine the number of MDN components to achieve optimal performance. The fraction of objects that are correctly split into the main classes is 94%. Our method improves the bias of photometric redshift estimation (i.e. the mean $Δz$ = (zp - zs)/(1 + zs)) by one order of magnitude compared to the SDSS photo-z, and decreases the fraction of $3 σ$ outliers (i.e. 3rms$(Δz) < Δz$). The relative, root-mean-square systematic uncertainty in our resulting photo-zs is down to 1.7% for low-redshift galaxies (zs $<$ 0.5). We have demonstrated the feasibility of machine-learning based methods that produce full probability distributions for photo-z estimates with a performance that is competitive with state-of-the art techniques. Our method can be applied to wide-field surveys where extinction can vary significantly across the sky and with sparse spectroscopic calibration samples.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2020

Is every strong lens model unhappy in its own way? Uniform modelling of a sample of 13 quadruply+ imaged quasars

Strong-gravitational lens systems with quadruply-imaged quasars (quads) are unique probes to address several fundamental problems in cosmology and astrophysics. Although they are intrinsically very rare, ongoing and planned wide-field deep-sky surveys are set to discover thousands of such systems in the next decade. It is thus paramount to devise a general framework to model strong-lens systems to cope with this large influx without being limited by expert investigator time. We propose such a general modelling framework (implemented with the publicly available software Lenstronomy) and apply it to uniformly model three-band Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 images of 13 quads. This is the largest uniformly modelled sample of quads to date and paves the way for a variety of studies. To illustrate the scientific content of the sample, we investigate the alignment between the mass and light distribution in the deflectors. The position angles of these distributions are well-aligned, except when there is strong external shear. However, we find no correlation between the ellipticity of the light and mass distributions. We also show that the observed flux-ratios between the images depart significantly from the predictions of simple smooth models. The departures are strongest in the bluest band, consistent with microlensing being the dominant cause in addition to millilensing. Future papers will exploit this rich dataset in combination with ground based spectroscopy and time delays to determine quantities such as the Hubble constant, the free streaming length of dark matter, and the normalization of the initial stellar mass function.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2020

TDCOSMO. I. An exploration of systematic uncertainties in the inference of $H_0$ from time-delay cosmography

Time-delay cosmography of lensed quasars has achieved 2.4% precision on the measurement of the Hubble constant, $H_0$. As part of an ongoing effort to uncover and control systematic uncertainties, we investigate three potential sources: 1- stellar kinematics, 2- line-of-sight effects, and 3- the deflector mass model. To meet this goal in a quantitative way, we reproduced the H0LiCOW/SHARP/STRIDES (hereafter TDCOSMO) procedures on a set of real and simulated data, and we find the following. First, stellar kinematics cannot be a dominant source of error or bias since we find that a systematic change of 10% of measured velocity dispersion leads to only a 0.7% shift on $H_0$ from the seven lenses analyzed by TDCOSMO. Second, we find no bias to arise from incorrect estimation of the line-of-sight effects. Third, we show that elliptical composite (stars + dark matter halo), power-law, and cored power-law mass profiles have the flexibility to yield a broad range in $H_0$ values. However, the TDCOSMO procedures that model the data with both composite and power-law mass profiles are informative. If the models agree, as we observe in real systems owing to the "bulge-halo" conspiracy, $H_0$ is recovered precisely and accurately by both models. If the two models disagree, as in the case of some pathological models illustrated here, the TDCOSMO procedure either discriminates between them through the goodness of fit, or it accounts for the discrepancy in the final error bars provided by the analysis. This conclusion is consistent with a reanalysis of six of the TDCOSMO (real) lenses: the composite model yields $74.0^{+1.7}_{-1.8}$ $km.s^{-1}.Mpc^{-1}$, while the power-law model yields $H_0=74.2^{+1.6}_{-1.6}$ $km.s^{-1}.Mpc^{-1}$. In conclusion, we find no evidence of bias or errors larger than the current statistical uncertainties reported by TDCOSMO.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2020

STRIDES: a 3.9 per cent measurement of the Hubble constant from the strong lens system DES J0408-5354

We present a blind time-delay cosmographic analysis for the lens system DES J0408$-$5354. This system is extraordinary for the presence of two sets of multiple images at different redshifts, which provide the opportunity to obtain more information at the cost of increased modelling complexity with respect to previously analyzed systems. We perform detailed modelling of the mass distribution for this lens system using three band Hubble Space Telescope imaging. We combine the measured time delays, line-of-sight central velocity dispersion of the deflector, and statistically constrained external convergence with our lens models to estimate two cosmological distances. We measure the "effective" time-delay distance corresponding to the redshifts of the deflector and the lensed quasar $D_{Δt}^{\rm eff}=3382^{+146}_{-115}$ Mpc and the angular diameter distance to the deflector $D_{\rm d}=1711^{+376}_{-280}$ Mpc, with covariance between the two distances. From these constraints on the cosmological distances, we infer the Hubble constant $H_0 = 74.2^{+2.7}_{-3.0}$ km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$ assuming a flat $Λ$CDM cosmology and a uniform prior for $Ω_{\rm m}$ as $Ω_{\rm m} \sim \mathcal{U}(0.05, 0.5)$. This measurement gives the most precise constraint on $H_0$ to date from a single lens. Our measurement is consistent with that obtained from the previous sample of six lenses analyzed by the $H_0$ Lenses in COSMOGRAIL's Wellspring (H0LiCOW) collaboration. It is also consistent with measurements of $H_0$ based on the local distance ladder, reinforcing the tension with the inference from early Universe probes, for example, with 2.2$σ$ discrepancy from the cosmic microwave background measurement.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2020

STRIDES: Spectroscopic and photometric characterization of the environment and effects of mass along the line of sight to the gravitational lenses DES J0408-5354 and WGD 2038-4008

In time-delay cosmography, three of the key ingredients are 1) determining the velocity dispersion of the lensing galaxy, 2) identifying galaxies and groups along the line of sight with sufficient proximity and mass to be included in the mass model, and 3) estimating the external convergence $κ_\mathrm{ext}$ from less massive structures that are not included in the mass model. We present results on all three of these ingredients for two time-delay lensed quasar systems, DES J0408-5354 and WGD 2038-4008. We use the Gemini, Magellan and VLT telescopes to obtain spectra to both measure the stellar velocity dispersions of the main lensing galaxies and to identify the line-of-sight galaxies in these systems. Next, we identify 10 groups in DES J0408-5354 and 2 groups in WGD 2038-4008using a group-finding algorithm. We then identify the most significant galaxy and galaxy-group perturbers using the "flexion shift" criterion. We determine the probability distribution function of the external convergence $κ_\mathrm{ext}$ for both of these systems based on our spectroscopy and on the DES-only multiband wide-field observations. Using weighted galaxy counts, calibrated based on the Millennium Simulation, we find that DES J0408-5354 is located in a significantly underdense environment, leading to a tight (width $\sim3\%$), negative-value $κ_\mathrm{ext}$ distribution. On the other hand, WGD 2038-4008 is located in an environment of close to unit density, and its low source redshift results in a much tighter $κ_\mathrm{ext}$ of $\sim1\%$, as long as no external shear constraints are imposed.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2019

The STRong lensing Insights into the Dark Energy Survey (STRIDES) 2017/2018 follow-up campaign: Discovery of 10 lensed quasars and 10 quasar pairs

We report the results of the STRong lensing Insights from the Dark Energy Survey (STRIDES) follow-up campaign of the late 2017/early 2018 season. We obtained spectra of 65 lensed quasar candidates either with EFOSC2 on the NTT or ESI on Keck, which confirm 10 new gravitationally lensed quasars and 10 quasar pairs with similar spectra, but which do not show a lensing galaxy in DES images. Eight lensed quasars are doubly imaged with source redshifts between 0.99 and 2.90, one is triply imaged by a group (DESJ0345-2545, $z=1.68$), and one is quadruply imaged (quad: DESJ0053-2012, $z=3.8$). Singular isothermal ellipsoid models for the doubles, based on high-resolution imaging from SAMI on SOAR or NIRC2 on Keck, give total magnifications between 3.2 and 5.6, and Einstein radii between 0.49 and 1.97 arcseconds. After spectroscopic follow-up, we extract multi-epoch $grizY$ photometry of confirmed lensed quasars and contaminant quasar+star pairs from the first 4 years of DES data using parametric multi-band modelling, and compare variability in each system's components. By measuring the reduced $χ^2$ associated with fitting all epochs to the same magnitude, we find a simple cut on the less variable component that retains all confirmed lensed quasars, while removing 94 per cent of contaminant systems with stellar components. Based on our spectroscopic follow-up, this variability information can improve selection of lensed quasars and quasar pairs from 34-45 per cent to 51-70 per cent, with the majority of remaining contaminants being compact star-forming galaxies. Using mock lensed quasar lightcurves we demonstrate that selection based only on variability will over-represent the quad fraction by 10 per cent over a complete DES magnitude-limited sample (excluding microlensing differences), explained by the magnification bias and hence lower luminosity (more variable) sources in quads.

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arXiv2019

Double dark matter vision: twice the number of compact-source lenses with narrow-line lensing and the WFC3 grism

The magnifications of compact-source lenses are extremely sensitive to the presence of low mass dark matter halos along the entire sight line from the source to the observer. Traditionally, the study of dark matter structure in compact-source strong gravitational lenses has been limited to radio-loud systems, as the radio emission is extended and thus unaffected by microlensing which can mimic the signal of dark matter structure. An alternate approach is to measure quasar nuclear-narrow line emission, which is free from microlensing and present in virtually all quasar lenses. In this paper, we double the number of systems which can be used for gravitational lensing analyses by presenting measurements of narrow-line emission from a sample of 8 quadruply imaged quasar lens systems, WGD J0405-3308, HS 0810+2554, RX J0911+0551, SDSS J1330+1810, PS J1606-2333, WFI 2026-4536, WFI 2033-4723 and WGD J2038-4008. We describe our updated grism spectral modelling pipeline, which we use to measure narrow-line fluxes with uncertainties of 2-10\%, presented here. We fit the lensed image positions with smooth mass models and demonstrate that these models fail to produce the observed distribution of image fluxes over the entire sample of lenses. Furthermore, typical deviations are larger than those expected from macromodel uncertainties. This discrepancy indicates the presence of perturbations caused by small-scale dark matter structure. The interpretation of this result in terms of dark matter models is presented in a companion paper.

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arXiv2019

Observation and Confirmation of Nine Strong Lensing Systems in Dark Energy Survey Year 1 Data

We describe the observation and confirmation of \nbconfirmtext\ new strong gravitational lenses discovered in Year 1 data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES). We created candidate lists based on a) galaxy group and cluster samples and b) photometrically selected galaxy samples. We selected 46 candidates through visual inspection and then used the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) at the Gemini South telescope to acquire spectroscopic follow-up of 21 of these candidates. Through analysis of this spectroscopic follow-up data, we confirmed nine new lensing systems and rejected 2 candidates, but the analysis was inconclusive on 10 candidates. For each of the confirmed systems, we report measured spectroscopic properties, estimated \einsteinradiussub, and estimated enclosed masses. The sources that we targeted have an i-band surface brightness range of iSB ~ 22 - 24 mag arcsec^2 and a spectroscopic redshift range of zspec ~0.8 - 2.6. The lens galaxies have a photometric redshift range of zlens ~ 0.3 - 0.7. The lensing systems range in image-lens separation 2 - 9 arcsec and in enclosed mass 10^12 - 10^13 Msol.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2019

Enhanced cluster lensing models with measured galaxy kinematics

We present an improved determination of the total mass distribution of three CLASH/HFF massive clusters, MACS J1206.2-0847 (z=0.44), MACS J0416.1-2403 (z=0.40), Abell S1063 (z=0.35). We specifically reconstruct the sub-halo mass component with robust stellar kinematics information of cluster galaxies, in combination with precise strong lensing models based on large samples of spectroscopically identified multiple images. We use VLT/MUSE integral-field spectroscopy in the cluster cores to measure the stellar velocity dispersion, $σ$, of 40-60 member galaxies per cluster, covering 4-5 magnitudes to $m_{F160W}\simeq 21.5$. We verify the robustness and quantify the accuracy of the velocity dispersion measurements with extensive spectral simulations. With these data, we determine the normalization and slope of the galaxy $L\mbox{-}σ$ Faber-Jackson relation in each cluster and use these parameters as a prior for the scaling relations of the sub-halo population in the mass distribution modeling. When compared to our previous lens models, the inclusion of member galaxies' kinematics provides a similar precision in reproducing the positions of the multiple images. However, the inherent degeneracy between the central effective velocity dispersion, $σ_0$, and truncation radius, $r_{cut}$, of sub-halos is strongly reduced, thus significantly alleviating possible systematics in the measurements of sub-halo masses. The three independent determinations of the $σ_0\mbox{-}r_{cut}$ scaling relation in each cluster are found to be fully consistent, enabling a statistical determination of sub-halo sizes as a function of $σ_0$, or halo masses. We derive galaxy central velocity dispersion functions of the three clusters and found them in agreement with each other. Sub-halo mass functions determined with this method can be compared with those obtained from cosmological simulations.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2019

H0LiCOW X: Spectroscopic/imaging survey and galaxy-group identification around the strong gravitational lens system WFI2033-4723

Galaxies and galaxy groups located along the line of sight towards gravitationally lensed quasars produce high-order perturbations of the gravitational potential at the lens position. When these perturbation are too large, they can induce a systematic error on $H_0$ of a few-percent if the lens system is used for cosmological inference and the perturbers are not explicitly accounted for in the lens model. In this work, we present a detailed characterization of the environment of the lens system WFI2033-4723 ($z_{\rm src} = 1.662$, $z_{\rm lens}$ = 0.6575), one of the core targets of the H0LICOW project for which we present cosmological inferences in a companion paper (Rusu et al. 2019). We use the Gemini and ESO-Very Large telescopes to measure the spectroscopic redshifts of the brightest galaxies towards the lens, and use the ESO-MUSE integral field spectrograph to measure the velocity-dispersion of the lens ($σ_{\rm {los}}= 250^{+15}_{-21}$ km/s) and of several nearby galaxies. In addition, we measure photometric redshifts and stellar masses of all galaxies down to $i < 23$ mag, mainly based on Dark Energy Survey imaging (DR1). Our new catalog, complemented with literature data, more than doubles the number of known galaxy spectroscopic redshifts in the direct vicinity of the lens, expanding to 116 (64) the number of spectroscopic redshifts for galaxies separated by less than 3 arcmin (2 arcmin) from the lens. Using the flexion-shift as a measure of the amplitude of the gravitational perturbation, we identify 2 galaxy groups and 3 galaxies that require specific attention in the lens models. The ESO MUSE data enable us to measure the velocity-dispersions of three of these galaxies. These results are essential for the cosmological inference analysis presented in Rusu et al. (2019).

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arXiv2019

VEXAS: the VISTA EXtension to Auxiliary Surveys -- Data Release 1: the Southern Galactic Hemisphere

We present the first public data release of the VISTA EXtension to Auxiliary Surveys (VEXAS), comprising of 9 cross-matched multi-wavelength photometric catalogs where each object has a match in at least two surveys. We aim at a spatial coverage as uniform as possible in the multi-wavelength sky, with the purpose of providing the astronomical community with reference magnitudes and colours for various scientific uses, including: object classification (e.g. quasars, galaxies, and stars; high-z galaxies, white dwarfs, etc.); photometric redshifts of large galaxy samples; searches of exotic objects such as, for example, extremely red objects and lensed quasars. We have cross-matched the wide-field VISTA catalogs (the VISTA Hemisphere Survey and the VISTA Kilo Degree Infrared Galaxy Survey) with the AllWISE mid-infrared Survey, requiring that a match exists within 10 arcsec. We have further matched this table with X-Ray and radio data (ROSAT, XMM, SUMSS). We also performed a second cross-match between VISTA and AllWISE, with a smaller matching radius (3"), including WISE magnitudes. We have then cross-matched this resulting table ($\approx138\times10^6$ objects) with three photometric wide-sky optical deep surveys (DES, SkyMapper, PanSTARRS). We finally include matches to objects with spectroscopic follow-up by the SDSS and 6dFGS. To demonstrate the power of all-sky multi-wavelength cross-match tables, we show two examples of scientific applications of VEXAS, in particular using the publicly released tables to discover strong gravitational lenses (beyond the reach of previous searches), and to build a statistically large sample of extremely red objects. The VEXAS catalog is currently the widest and deepest, public, optical-to-IR photometric and spectroscopic database in the Southern Hemisphere.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2019

H0LiCOW - IX. Cosmographic analysis of the doubly imaged quasar SDSS 1206+4332 and a new measurement of the Hubble constant

We present a blind time-delay strong lensing (TDSL) cosmographic analysis of the doubly imaged quasar SDSS 1206+4332. We combine the relative time delay between the quasar images, Hubble Space Telescope imaging, the Keck stellar velocity dispersion of the lensing galaxy, and wide-field photometric and spectroscopic data of the field to constrain two angular diameter distance relations. The combined analysis is performed by forward modelling the individual data sets through a Bayesian hierarchical framework, and it is kept blind until the very end to prevent experimenter bias. After unblinding, the inferred distances imply a Hubble constant $H_0 = 68.8^{+5.4}_{-5.1}$ kms$^{-1}$Mpc$^{-1}$, assuming a flat Lambda cold dark matter cosmology with uniform prior on $Ω_{\rm m}$ in [0.05, 0.5]. The precision of our cosmographic measurement with the doubly imaged quasar SDSS 1206+4332 is comparable with those of quadruply imaged quasars and opens the path to perform on selected doubles the same analysis as anticipated for quads. Our analysis is based on a completely independent lensing code than our previous three H0LiCOW systems and the new measurement is fully consistent with those. We provide the analysis scripts paired with the publicly available software to facilitate independent analysis. The consistency between blind measurements with independent codes provides an important sanity check on lens modelling systematics. By combining the likelihoods of the four systems under the same prior, we obtain $H_0 = 72.5^{+2.1}_{-2.3}$kms$^{-1}$Mpc$^{-1}$. This measurement is independent of the distance ladder and other cosmological probes.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2019

Spectroscopic confirmation and modelling of two lensed quadruple quasars in the Dark Energy Survey public footprint

Quadruply lensed quasars are extremely rare objects, but incredibly powerful cosmological tools. Only few dozen are known in the whole sky. Here we present the spectroscopic confirmation of two new quadruplets WG0214-2105 and WG2100-4452 discovered by Agnello & Spiniello (2018) within the Dark Energy Survey (DES) public footprints. We have conducted spectroscopic follow-up of these systems with the Southern African Large Telescope as part of a program that aims at confirming the largest possible number of optically selected strong gravitational lensing systems in the Equatorial and Southern Hemisphere. For both systems, we present the spectra for the sources and deflectors that allowed us to estimate the source redshifts and unambiguously confirm their lensing nature. For the brighter deflector (WG2100-4452), we measure the stellar velocity dispersion from the spectrum. We also obtain photometry for both lenses, directly from DES multi-band images, isolating the lens galaxies from the quasar images. One of the quadruplets, WG0214-2105, was also observed by Pan-STARRS, allowing us to estimate the apparent brightness of each quasar image at two different epochs, and thus to find evidence for flux variability. This result could suggest a microlensing event for the faintest components, although intrinsic variability cannot be excluded with only two epochs. Finally, we present simple lens models for both quadruplets, obtaining Einstein radii, SIE velocity dispersions, ellipticities, and position angles of the lens systems, as well as time delay predictions assuming a concordance cosmological model.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2018

Bright lenses are easy to find: Spectroscopic confirmation of lensed quasars in the Southern Sky

Gravitationally lensed quasars are valuable, but extremely rare, probes of observational cosmology and extragalactic astrophysics. Progress in these fields has been limited just by the paucity of systems with good ancillary data. Here we present a first spectroscopic confirmation of lenses discovered in the Southern Sky from the DES and KiDS-DR3 footprints. % optical ground based surveys in the Southern Hemisphere. We have targeted 7 high-graded candidates, selected with new techniques, with NTT-EFOSC2, and confirmed 5 of them. We provide source spectroscopic redshifts, image separations, $gri$ photometry and first lens model parameters. The success rate of ~70% confirms our forecasts, based on the comparison between the number of candidate doubles and quadruplets in our searches over a ~5000 sq.deg footprint and theoretical predictions.

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arXiv2018

The STRong lensing Insights into the Dark Energy Survey (STRIDES) 2016 follow-up campaign. I. Overview and classification of candidates selected by two techniques

The primary goals of the STRong lensing Insights into the Dark Energy Survey (STRIDES) collaboration are to measure the dark energy equation of state parameter and the free streaming length of dark matter. To this aim, STRIDES is discovering strongly lensed quasars in the imaging data of the Dark Energy Survey and following them up to measure time delays, high resolution imaging, and spectroscopy sufficient to construct accurate lens models. In this paper, we first present forecasts for STRIDES. Then, we describe the STRIDES classification scheme, and give an overview of the Fall 2016 follow-up campaign. We continue by detailing the results of two selection methods, the Outlier Selection Technique and a morphological algorithm, and presenting lens models of a system, which could possibly be a lensed quasar in an unusual configuration. We conclude with the summary statistics of the Fall 2016 campaign. Including searches presented in companion papers (Anguita et al.; Ostrovski et al.), STRIDES followed up 117 targets identifying 7 new strongly lensed systems, and 7 nearly identical quasars (NIQs), which could be confirmed as lenses by the detection of the lens galaxy. 76 candidates were rejected and 27 remain otherwise inconclusive, for a success rate in the range 6-35\%. This rate is comparable to that of previous searches like SQLS even though the parent dataset of STRIDES is purely photometric and our selection of candidates cannot rely on spectroscopic information.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2018

KiDS-SQuaD: The KiDS Strongly lensed Quasar Detection project

New methods have been recently developed to search for strong gravitational lenses, in particular lensed quasars, in wide-field imaging surveys. Here, we compare the performance of three different, morphology- and photometry- based methods to find lens candidates over the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS) DR3 footprint (440 deg$^2$). The three methods are: i) a multiplet detection in KiDS-DR3 and/or Gaia-DR1, ii) direct modeling of KiDS cutouts and iii) positional offsets between different surveys (KiDS-vs-Gaia, Gaia-vs-2MASS), with purpose-built astrometric recalibrations. The first benchmark for the methods has been set by the recovery of known lenses. We are able to recover seven out of ten known lenses and pairs of quasars observed in the KiDS DR3 footprint, or eight out of ten with improved selection criteria and looser colour pre-selection. This success rate reflects the combination of all methods together, which, taken individually, performed significantly worse (four lenses each). One movelty of our analysis is that the comparison of the performances of the different methods has revealed the pros and cons of the approaches and, most of all, the complementarities. We finally provide a list of high-grade candidates found by one or more methods, awaiting spectroscopic follow-up for confirmation. Of these, KiDS 1042+0023 is to our knowledge the first confirmed lensed quasar from KiDS, exhibiting two quasar spectra at the same source redshift at either sides of a red galaxy, with uniform flux-ratio $f\approx1.25$ over the wavelength range $0.45μ\mathrm{m}<λ<0.75μ\mathrm{m}.$

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arXiv2018

The STRong lensing Insights into the Dark Energy Survey (STRIDES) 2016 follow-up campaign. II. New quasar lenses from double component fitting

We report upon the follow up of 34 candidate lensed quasars found in the Dark Energy Survey using NTT-EFOSC, Magellan-IMACS, KECK-ESI and SOAR-SAMI. These candidates were selected by a combination of double component fitting, morphological assessment and color analysis. Most systems followed up are indeed composed of at least one quasar image and 13 with two or more quasar images: two lenses, four projected binaries and seven Nearly Identical Quasar Pairs (NIQs). The two systems confirmed as genuine gravitationally lensed quasars are one quadruple at $z_s=1.713$ and one double at $z_s=1.515$. Lens modeling of these two systems reveals that both systems require very little contribution from the environment to reproduce the image configuration. Nevertheless, small flux anomalies can be observed in one of the images of the quad. Further observations of 9 inconclusive systems (including 7 NIQs) will allow to confirm (or not) their gravitational lens nature.

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