XShooter DESI Lens Program: Sample characterization

Abstract

Large imaging surveys in cosmology are detecting orders of magnitude more lens systems than known so far. This unprecedented dataset will lead to robust constraints on cosmology and galaxy evolution models. However, a preliminary careful characterization of the lens and source samples are mandatory. In this work, we report on a VLT/XShooter observation program of 67 lens systems to characterize their spectroscopic redshift distribution. These systems were previously detected on the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Legacy Imaging Surveys by Huang et al. 2021 and Storfer et al. 2022 with deep residual neural network. We manage to measure redshifts for 58 lenses and 57 sources. We also identify 2 sources with indication of outflow in the shape of the emission lines and 7 sources with rotating disks in $[OII]$ or $Hα$. We find no particular bias associated to the redshift measurement operation, meaning that our measured source redshift distribution is likely representative of the true one and can be used to calibrate analyses in large imaging surveys.