Discovering strongly lensed quasar candidates with catalogue-based methods from DESI Legacy Surveys

The Hubble tension, revealed by a $\sim 5\sigma$ discrepancy between measurements of the Hubble-Lemaitre constant from early- and local-Universe observations, is one of the most significant problems in modern cosmology. In order to better understand the origin of this mismatch, independent techniques to measure $H_0$, such as strong lensing time delays, are required. Notably, the sample size of such systems is key to minimising statistical uncertainties and cosmic variance, which can be improved by exploring the datasets of large-scale sky surveys like DESI (Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument). We identify possible strong lensing time-delay systems within DESI by selecting candidate multiply imaged lensed quasars from a catalogue of 24,440,816 candidate QSOs contained in the 9th data release of the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys (DESI-LS). Using a friend-of-friends-like algorithm on spatial co-ordinates, our method generates an initial list of compact quasar groups. This list is subsequently filtered using a measure of the similarity of colours of a group's members and the likelihood that they are quasars. A visual inspection finally selects candidate strong lensing systems based on the spatial configuration of the group members. We identify 620 new candidate multiply imaged lensed quasars (101 Grade-A, 214 Grade-B, 305 Grade-C). This number excludes 53 known spectroscopically confirmed systems and existing candidate systems identified in other similar catalogues. When available, these new candidates will be further checked by combining the spectroscopic and photometric data from DESI. The catalogues and images of the candidates in this work are available online (https://github.com/EigenHermit/lensed_qso_cand_catalogue_He-22/).