Related papers: Determining the Microlens Mass Function from Quasa…
We present a method for computing the probability distribution of microlensed light curve derivatives both in the case of a static lens with a transverse velocity, and in the case of microlensing that is produced through stellar proper…
We aim to unveil the structure of the continuum and broad-emission line (BEL) emitting regions in the gravitationally lensed quasar SDSS J1339+1310 by examining the distinct signatures of microlensing present in this system. Our study…
The main aim of microlensing experiments is to evaluate the mean mass of massive compact halo objects (MACHOs) and the mass fraction of the Galactic halo made by this type of dark matter. Statistical analysis shows that by considering a…
Owing to the advent of large area photometric surveys, the possibility to use broad band photometric data, instead of spectra, to measure the size of the broad line region of active galactic nuclei, has raised a large interest. We describe…
We show how observations of multiply-imaged quasars at high redshift can be used as a probe of dark matter clumps (subhalos with masses ~ 10^9 solar masses) within the virialized extent of more massive lensing halos. A large abundance of…
In order to investigate the dependence of quasar optical-UV variability on fundamental physical parameters like black hole mass, we have matched quasars from the QUEST1 variability survey with broad-lined objects from the SDSS. Black hole…
Recent estimates of the scale of structures at the heart of quasars suggest that the region responsible for the broad line emission are smaller than previously thought. With this revision of scale, the broad line region is amenable to the…
Microlensing near macro-caustics is a complex phenomenon in which swarms of micro-images produced by micro-caustics form on both sides of a macro-critical curve. Recent discoveries of highly magnified images of individual stars in massive…
We present a joint estimate of the stellar/dark matter mass fraction in lens galaxies and the average size of the accretion disk of lensed quasars from microlensing measurements of 27 quasar image pairs seen through 19 lens galaxies. The…
Quasar microlensing offers a unique opportunity to resolve tiny sources in distant active galactic nuclei and study compact object populations in lensing galaxies. We therefore searched for microlensing-induced variability of the…
Contrary to naive expectation, diluting the stellar component of the lensing galaxy in a highly magnified system with smoothly distributed ``dark'' matter increases rather than decreases the microlensing fluctuations caused by the remaining…
We present evidence for ultraviolet/optical microlensing in the gravitationally lensed quasar Q0957+561. We combine new measurements from our optical monitoring campaign at the United States Naval Observatory, Flagstaff (USNO) with…
The physical nature of the material responsible for the high--velocity, broad-absorption line features seen in a small fraction of quasar spectra has been the subject of debate since their discovery. This has been especially compounded by…
Strong lensing provides a powerful means of investigating the nature of dark matter as it probes dark matter structure on sub-galactic scales. We present an extension of a forward modeling framework that uses flux ratios from quadruply…
Assuming a two-component quasar structure model consisting of a central compact source and an extended outer feature, we produce microlensing simulations for a population of star-like objects in the lens galaxy. Such a model is a simplified…
Microlensing studies of quasars can reveal dark matter lumps over a broad mass spectrum; we highlight the importance of monitoring quasars which are seen through the halos of low-redshift galaxies. For these configurations microlensing by…
The initial results of microlensing surveys toward the Galactic bulge and the LMC are puzzling. Toward the LMC, the total mass in MACHOs is of order half that required to explain the dark matter, but the estimated MACHO mass (~0.4 Msun) is…
A substantial part of the dark matter of the Universe could be in the form of compact objects (MACHOs), detectable through gravitational microlensing effects as they pass through the line of sight to background light sources. So far, most…
We present a tool to generate mock quasar microlensing light curves and sample them according to any observing strategy. An updated treatment of the fixed and random velocity components of observer, lens, and source is used, together with a…
We investigate the spectro-photometric variability of quasars due to lensing of small mass substructure (from several tens to several hundreds solar masses). The aim of this paper is to explore the milli/microlensing influence on the flux…