Using a microlensing analysis of 11-years of OGLE V-band photometry of the four image gravitational lens Q2237+0305, we measure the inclination i of the accretion disk to be cos i > 0.66 at 68% confidence. Very edge on (cos i < 0.39) solutions are ruled out at 95% confidence. We measure the V-band radius of the accretion disk, defined by the radius where the temperature matches the monitoring band photon emission, to be R_V = 5.8 (+3.8) (-2.3) x 10^15 cm assuming a simple thin disk model and including the uncertainties in its inclination. The projected radiating area of the disk remains too large to be consistent with the observed flux for a T proportional to R^-3/4 thin disk temperature profile. There is no strong correlation between the direction of motion (peculiar velocity) of the lens galaxy and the orientation of the disk.
@article{arxiv.0910.3669,
title = {Microlensing Evidence That A Type 1 Quasar Is Viewed Face On},
author = {Shawn Poindexter and Christopher S. Kochanek},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0910.3669},
year = {2014}
}
Comments
7 pages, 6 figures; animated magnification pattern video can be found at http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~sdp/animation.avi; accepted for publication in ApJ