Gaia GraL: Gaia DR2 gravitational lens systems – VIII. A radio census of lensed systems

Abstract

We present radio observations of 24 confirmed and candidate strongly lensed quasars identified by the Gaia Gravitational Lenses working group. We detect radio emission from eight systems in 5.5 and 9 GHz observations with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), and 12 systems in 6 GHz observations with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). The resolution of our ATCA observations is insufficient to resolve the radio emission into multiple lensed images, but we do detect multiple images from 11 VLA targets. We have analysed these systems using our observations in conjunction with existing optical measurements, including measuring offsets between the radio and optical positions for each image and building updated lens models. These observations significantly expand the existing sample of lensed radio quasars, suggest that most lensed systems are detectable at radio wavelengths with targeted observations, and demonstrate the feasibility of population studies with high-resolution radio imaging.