Related papers: Microlensing induced spectral variability in Q2237…
We present the first results from a pilot programme to monitor the short term optical variability in Broad Absorption Line system QSOs. Intra-night optical variations of ~5% were detected on time scales of ~ one hour in QSOs 0846+156 and…
The gravitational field of a galaxy can act as a lens and deflect the light emitted by a more distant object such as a quasar. Strong gravitational lensing causes multiple images of the same quasar to appear in the sky. Since the light in…
We present results from a seven-season (2018-2024) monitoring campaign of the gravitationally lensed quasar system PS J2305+3714 using the 1.5-m Maidanak Telescope in the optical R-band. From these data, the amplitude of possible…
We re-analyze brightness data sampled intensively over 5 nights at two epochs separated by the quasar lens time delay, to examine the nature of the observed microlensing. We find strong evidence for a microlensing event with an amplitude of…
Gravitationally lensed quasars are viable cosmic tools for constraining a diversity of fundamental astrophysical phenomena; They enable identification of faint, low-mass supermassive black holes, provide unique constraints on the…
In 1998 The Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) successfully implemented automated data reductions for QSO 2237+0305. Using a new image subtraction method we achieved a differential photometry scatter of 1-5 % for images A-D…
From regular monitoring of the Double Quasar QSO 0957+561 A,B there is now general agreement on a time delay of about 416 days. This has made it possible to determine the microlensing residual in the light-curve, see Pelt et al. (1998). We…
Gravitational microlensing is a powerful tool to probe the inner structure of strongly lensed quasars and to constrain parameters of the stellar mass function of lens galaxies. This is done by analysing microlensing light curves between the…
An observing campaign with 10 participating observatories has undertaken to monitor the optical brightness of the Q0957 gravitationally lensed quasar for 10 consecutive nights in January 2000. The resulting A image brightness curve has…
We aim to reveal the sizes of the continuum and broad emission line (BEL) emitting regions in the gravitationally lensed quasar SDSS J1004+4112 by analyzing the unique signatures of microlensing in this system. Through a comprehensive…
We measure the differential microlensing of the broad emission lines between 18 quasar image pairs in 16 gravitational lenses. We find that high ionization lines such as CIV are more strongly microlensed than low ionization lines,…
A recently discovered inverse correlation between QSO redshift and long-term continuum variability timescales was suggested to be the signature of microlensing on cosmological scales (Hawkins 1993). A general theoretical method for…
Testing the standard Shakura-Sunyaev model of accretion is a challenging task because the central region of quasars where accretion takes place is unresolved with telescopes. The analysis of microlensing in gravitationally lensed quasars is…
The variability of quasars across multiple wavelengths is a useful probe of physical conditions in active galactic nuclei. In particular, variable accretion rates, instabilities, and reverberation effects in the accretion disk of a…
We use spectroscopic observations of the gravitationally lensed systems SDSS0924+0219(BC), Q1355-2257(AB), and SDSS1029+2623(BC) to analyze microlensing and dust extinction in the observed components. We detect chromatic microlensing…
Since the persuasive determination of the time-delay in Q0957+561, much interest has centered around shifting and subtracting the A and B light-curves to look for residuals due to microlensing. Solar mass objects in the lens galaxy produce…
Aims. Falomo et al. (2005) discovered a disk-like galaxy at ~ 1.2 arcsec from the QSO Q0045-3337 by means of ESO VLT adaptive optics. They estimated a galaxy Einstein radius (for a point mass) of comparable size, thus pointing up the…
The V=16.9 quasar FBQ 0951+2635 at redshift z=1.24 appears double on CCD exposures taken in subarcsecond seeing. The two objects are separated by 1.1" and differ in brightness by 0.9 mag. VLA observations show the radio source to be double…
We present the results of a multi-epoch observational campaign on the mini-broad absorption line quasar (mini-BAL QSO) PG 1126-041 performed with XMM-Newton from 2004 to 2009. Time-resolved X-ray spectroscopy and simultaneous UV and X-ray…
Gravitational microlensing at cosmological distances is potentially a powerful tool for probing the mass functions of stars and compact objects in other galaxies. In the case of multiply-imaged quasars, microlensing data has been used to…