Euclid Quick Data Release (Q1). AstroVink: A vision transformer approach to find strong gravitational lens systems
Abstract
We present AstroVink, a vision transformer classifier designed for automated identification of strong lens candidates in Euclid imaging. We build upon the DINOv2 encoder, fine tuned to distinguish between lens and non-lens galaxies. Our base model, trained on simulated strong lens systems and labelled non lenses, recovers 88 of the 110 lens candidates within the top 500 ranked candidates, corresponding to an inspection efficiency of one lens per 5.7 inspected objects in our test set. After the Q1 data release, which yielded about 500 lens candidates, we retrained the model using high confidence lens candidates and new negatives, initially flagged as potential lenses by other classifiers but rejected during visual inspection. The retrained network further improves performance, achieving recovery of all 110 systems within the same ranking and reducing the inspection effort to one lens per 4.5 inspected objects, demonstrating that incorporating real examples significantly enhances model generalisation. An analysis of training subsets revealed that the inclusion of realistic negative examples played a key role in this improvement. Finally, we applied the retrained model to the Q1 original selection of 1.08M targets, followed by a new round of Space Warps citizen science inspection and expert vetting, where we identified a total of eight Grade A and 26 Grade B new lens candidates. These results demonstrate that transformer based architectures can recover strong lens candidates with high efficiency in real Euclid data, while substantially reducing the number of candidates requiring visual inspection.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2604.21977,
title = {Euclid Quick Data Release (Q1). AstroVink: A vision transformer approach to find strong gravitational lens systems},
author = {Euclid Collaboration and S. H. Vincken and K. Rojas and M. Melchior and N. E. P. Lines and T. E. Collett and A. Verma and P. Holloway and G. Despali and S. Schuldt and R. B. Metcalf and R. Gavazzi and F. Courbin and J. A. Acevedo Barroso and B. Clément and T. Li and D. Sluse and J. Wilde and A. Melo and A. Sonnenfeld and C. Tortora and T. T. Thai and M. Millon and C. Spiniello and A. Manjón-García and M. Meneghetti and B. C. Nagam and B. Altieri and S. Andreon and N. Auricchio and C. Baccigalupi and M. Baldi and A. Balestra and S. Bardelli and P. Battaglia and A. Biviano and E. Branchini and M. Brescia and S. Camera and V. Capobianco and C. Carbone and J. Carretero and S. Casas and M. Castellano and G. Castignani and S. Cavuoti and A. Cimatti and C. Colodro-Conde and G. Congedo and C. J. Conselice and L. Conversi and Y. Copin and A. Costille and H. M. Courtois and M. Cropper and A. Da Silva and H. Degaudenzi and G. De Lucia and C. Dolding and H. Dole and M. Douspis and F. Dubath and X. Dupac and S. Dusini and S. Escoffier and M. Farina and F. Faustini and S. Ferriol and F. Finelli and P. Fosalba and S. Fotopoulou and M. Frailis and E. Franceschi and M. Fumana and S. Galeotta and K. George and B. Gillis and C. Giocoli and J. Gracia-Carpio and A. Grazian and F. Grupp and L. Guzzo and S. V. H. Haugan and J. Hoar and W. Holmes and I. M. Hook and F. Hormuth and A. Hornstrup and K. Jahnke and M. Jhabvala and B. Joachimi and S. Kermiche and A. Kiessling and B. Kubik and M. Kümmel and M. Kunz and H. Kurki-Suonio and A. M. C. Le Brun and S. Ligori and P. B. Lilje and V. Lindholm and I. Lloro and G. Mainetti and E. Maiorano and O. Mansutti and S. Marcin and O. Marggraf and M. Martinelli and N. Martinet and F. Marulli and R. J. Massey and E. Medinaceli and S. Mei and E. Merlin and G. Meylan and A. Mora and M. Moresco and L. Moscardini and E. Munari and R. Nakajima and C. Neissner and R. C. Nichol and S. -M. Niemi and J. W. Nightingale and C. Padilla and S. Paltani and F. Pasian and K. Pedersen and W. J. Percival and V. Pettorino and S. Pires and G. Polenta and M. Poncet and L. A. Popa and F. Raison and A. Renzi and J. Rhodes and G. Riccio and E. Romelli and M. Roncarelli and R. Saglia and Z. Sakr and D. Sapone and B. Sartoris and M. Schirmer and P. Schneider and A. Secroun and G. Seidel and E. Sihvola and P. Simon and C. Sirignano and G. Sirri and L. Stanco and P. Tallada-Crespí and A. N. Taylor and I. Tereno and N. Tessore and S. Toft and F. Torradeflot and I. Tutusaus and L. Valenziano and J. Valiviita and T. Vassallo and G. Verdoes Kleijn and A. Veropalumbo and Y. Wang and J. Weller and A. Zacchei and G. Zamorani and E. Zucca and M. Ballardini and E. Bozzo and C. Burigana and R. Cabanac and M. Calabrese and A. Cappi and T. Castro and J. A. Escartin Vigo and L. Gabarra and S. Hemmati and J. Macias-Perez and R. Maoli and J. Martín-Fleitas and N. Mauri and P. Monaco and A. A. Nucita and A. Pezzotta and M. Pöntinen and I. Risso and V. Scottez and M. Sereno and M. Tenti and M. Tucci and M. Viel and M. Wiesmann and Y. Akrami and I. T. Andika and G. Angora and S. Anselmi and M. Archidiacono and F. Atrio-Barandela and L. Bazzanini and P. Bergamini and D. Bertacca and M. Bethermin and F. Beutler and A. Blanchard and L. Blot and S. Borgani and M. L. Brown and S. Bruton and A. Calabro and B. Camacho Quevedo and F. Caro and C. S. Carvalho and Y. Charles and F. Cogato and S. Conseil and A. R. Cooray and O. Cucciati and S. Davini and F. De Paolis and G. Desprez and A. Díaz-Sánchez and S. Di Domizio and J. M. Diego and P. -A. Duc and V. Duret and M. Y. Elkhashab and A. Enia and Y. Fang and A. Finoguenov and A. Franco and K. Ganga and T. Gasparetto and E. Gaztanaga and F. Giacomini and F. Gianotti and G. Gozaliasl and M. Guidi and C. M. Gutierrez and A. Hall and C. Hernández-Monteagudo and H. Hildebrandt and J. Hjorth and J. J. E. Kajava and Y. Kang and V. Kansal and D. Karagiannis and K. Kiiveri and J. Kim and C. C. Kirkpatrick and S. Kruk and F. Lepori and G. Leroy and J. Lesgourgues and T. I. Liaudat and S. J. Liu and A. Loureiro and M. Magliocchetti and E. A. Magnier and F. Mannucci and C. J. A. P. Martins and L. Maurin and M. Miluzio and C. Moretti and G. Morgante and K. Naidoo and A. Navarro-Alsina and S. Nesseris and D. Paoletti and F. Passalacqua and K. Paterson and L. Patrizii and D. Potter and G. W. Pratt and S. Quai and M. Radovich and W. Roster and S. Sacquegna and M. Sahlén and D. B. Sanders and E. Sarpa and C. Scarlata and A. Schneider and M. Schultheis and D. Sciotti and E. Sellentin and L. C. Smith and J. G. Sorce and K. Tanidis and C. Tao and F. Tarsitano and G. Testera and R. Teyssier and S. Tosi and A. Troja and A. Venhola and D. Vergani and G. Vernardos and G. Verza and S. Vinciguerra and M. Walmsley and N. A. Walton and A. H. Wright},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.21977},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
21 pages, 6 figures, 1 table,submitted to A&A journal, dataset available at https://zenodo.org/records/17425610, software available at https://github.com/SaamieVincken/AstroVink