Unveiling the population of dual- and lensed- AGNs at sub-arcsec separations

Understand

All cosmological models of structure formation predict the existence of a widespread population of dual supermassive black holes in-spiralling inside their common host galaxy, eventually merging and giving rise to intense gravitational waves.

• These systems can be identified as dual AGNs at kilo parsec separations, but only very few have been confirmed at z>0.5.
• The appearance of multiple AGNs at small angular separations can also be due to gravitational lensing of single AGNs, which are themselves very important systems for many astrophysical topics.
• Here we present a novel technique, dubbed the Gaia Multipeak (GMP) method, to obtain large and reliable samples of dual/lensed AGN candidates with sub-arcsec separations by looking for AGNs showing multiple peaks in the light profiles observed by the Gaia satellite.