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Title: Microlensing as a possible probe of event-horizon structure in quasars

Journal Article · · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [3]
  1. Univ. of Zurich, Zurich (Switzerland)
  2. Univ. of Zurich, Zurich (Switzerland); Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
  3. Univ. of Zurich, Zurich (Switzerland); SwitzerlandZentrum fur Astronomie der Univ. Heidelberg, Heidelberg (Germany)
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In quasars which are lensed by galaxies, the point-like images sometimes show sharp and uncorrelated brightness variations (microlensing). These brightness changes are associated with the innermost region of the quasar passing through a complicated pattern of caustics produced by the stars in the lensing galaxy. In this paper, we study whether the universal properties of optical caustics could enable extraction of shape information about the central engine of quasars. We present a toy model with a crescent-shaped source crossing a fold caustic. The silhouette of a black hole over an accretion disk tends to produce roughly crescent sources. When a crescent-shaped source crosses a fold caustic, the resulting light curve is noticeably different from the case of a circular luminosity profile or Gaussian source. Furthermore, with good enough monitoring data, the crescent parameters, apart from one degeneracy, can be recovered.

Research Organization:
Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-07CH11359
OSTI ID:
1408334
Report Number(s):
arXiv:1604.01769; FERMILAB-PUB-16-724-A; 1444474
Journal Information:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 475, Issue 2; ISSN 0035-8711
Publisher:
Royal Astronomical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 4 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (27)

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Cited By (2)

Lessons from a blind study of simulated lenses: image reconstructions do not always reproduce true convergence journal January 2020
Lessons from a blind study of simulated lenses: image reconstructions do not always reproduce true convergence text January 2019

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Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
gravitational lensing: micro
methods: numerical