FIVE NEW HIGH-REDSHIFT QUASAR LENSES FROM THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY

We report the discovery of five gravitationally lensed quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). All five systems are selected as two-image lensed quasar candidates from a sample of high-redshift (z > 2.2) SDSS quasars. We confirmed their lensing nature with additional imaging and spectroscopic observations. The new systems are SDSS J0819+5356 (source redshift z(s) = 2.237, lens redshift z(l) = 0.294, and image separation theta = 4 ''.04), SDSS J1254+2235 (z(s) = 3.626, theta = 1 ''.56), SDSS J1258+1657 (z(s) = 2.702, theta = 1 ''.28), SDSS J1339+1310 (z(s) = 2.243, theta = 1 ''.69), and SDSS J1400+3134 (z(s) = 3.317, theta = 1 ''.74). We estimate the lens redshifts of the latter four systems to be z(l) = 0.2-0.8 from the colors and magnitudes of the lensing galaxies. We find that the image configurations of all systems are well reproduced by standard mass models. Although these lenses will not be included in our statistical sample of z(s) < 2.2 lenses, they expand the number of lensed quasars which can be used for high-redshift galaxy and quasar studies.