Looking Inside Quasars with Microlensing

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Looking Inside Quasars with Microlensing

• Xinyu Dai 1
• Christopher S. Kochanek 1
• George Chartas 2
• Nicholas D. Morgan 1
• Gordon P. Garmire 2
• (1 Ohio State Univ., 2 Penn. State Univ.)

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Quasar Accretion Disk Sizes
RXJ1131
Q2237
X-Ray
140 AU
14 AU
Shorter than from Uranus to Sun
5 times from Neptune to Sun
Optical
Distance to Earth
Million billion AU
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Implications Constrain the Accretion Disk Models
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Gravitational Lens RXJ1131-1231
HST image of RXJ1131, the central object is a
galaxy, which acts as a lens. The images A-D
(three on top, one on bottom) are four images of
the same quasar.
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Microlensing Magnification Pattern
We know the sizes of these patterns. These
patterns are just like rulers, and we use these
rulers to measure the size of the quasar
accretion disk.
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Optical and X-ray Microlensing Light Curves
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Chandra Images of Q22370305(the Einstein Cross)