X-Ray and Optical Flux Ratio Anomalies in Quadruply Lensed Quasars. I. Zooming in on Quasar Emission Regions

By D. Pooley, J. A. Blackburne, S. Rappaport, P. Schechter. 2006

158 citations recorded by the source corpus.

X-ray and optical observations of quadruply lensed quasars can provide a microarcsecond probe of the lensed quasar, corresponding to scale sizes of ~102-104 gravitational radii of the central black hole. This high angular resolution is achieved by taking advantage of microlensing by stars in the lensing galaxy. In this paper we use X-ray observations of 10 lensed quasars recorded with the Chandra X-Ray Observatory as well as corresponding optical data obtained with either the Hubble Space Telescope or ground-based optical telescopes. These are analyzed in a systematic and uniform way with emphasis on the flux ratio anomalies that are found relative to the predictions of smooth lens models. A comparison of the flux ratio anomalies between the X-ray and optical bands allows us to conclude that the optical emission regions of the lensed quasars are typically larger than expected from basic thin-disk models by factors of ~3-30.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b9411a19a959510b62e20d3fe7c55a1334b36ca8

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. D. M. Alexander
2. R. Hickox
3. M. Oguri
4. C. Kochanek
5. J. A. Blackburne
6. P. Schechter
7. D. Pooley
8. S. Rappaport

Citations in the corpus

• The Mass Distribution of SDSS J1004$+$4112 Revisited (2010, background): “This makes the lens system a good site for studying the fine structure of the quasar through microlensing (Richards et al. 2004; Green 2006; Lamer et al. 2006; Pooley et al. 2007) or for studying host galaxies of distant quasars (Ross et al. 2009).”
• SIZES AND TEMPERATURE PROFILES OF QUASAR ACCRETION DISKS FROM CHROMATIC MICROLENSING (2010, methodology): “For the remaining quasars (HE 1113, SDSS J1330, and WFI J2026) we used the luminosity method of Pooley et al. (2007), inferring a bolometric luminosity from the optical flux.”
• INNOVATIONS IN THE ANALYSIS OF CHANDRA-ACIS OBSERVATIONS (2010, unknown): “PG 1115+080 (Pooley et al. 2006), 1RXS J1131−1231 (Blackburne et al. 2006), survey of 10 (Pooley et al. 2007).”
• What drives the growth of black holes (2011, background): “For example, microlensing of the central parsec region of the accretion disc in a number of quasars (e.g., Pooley et al., 2007; Floyd et al., 2009) have shown that the continuum emission profile drops more quickly that than expected from the basic α accretion-disc model but is broadly consistent…”
• THE SIZES OF THE X-RAY AND OPTICAL EMISSION REGIONS OF RXJ 1131–1231 (2009, background): “…microlensing of the X-ray emission are more limited, but indicate that the X-ray emission is much more compact than the optical (Dai et al. 2003, Pooley et al. 2006, 2007, Kochanek et al. 2006, Morgan et al. 2008, Chartas et al. 2009), tracking much closer to the inner edge of the accretion…”
• THE RADIATIVE EFFICIENCY OF ACCRETION FLOWS IN INDIVIDUAL ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI (2010, background): “The major discrepancy is that the optical to UV emission is constrained to come from radii which are factors of ∼ 3−10 larger than expected from a standard disk (e.g. Mortonson et al. 2005; Pooley et al. 2006, 2007; Morgan et al. 2010, 2008; Dai et al. 2010).”