Related papers: Gravitational Mapping of a Quasar Disk
The passage of stars through the beam of a lensed quasar can induce violent fluctuations in its apparent brightness. The fluctuations observed in the Huchra lens, (2237+0305), are taken to be the first evidence of this ``microlensing''…
Line profile distortions are commonly observed in gravitationally lensed quasar spectra. These distortions are caused by microlensing from the stars in the lensing galaxy, which produce differential magnification of spatially and…
Intensive monitoring campaigns have recently attempted to measure the time delays between multiple images of gravitational lenses. Some of the resulting light-curves show puzzling low-level, rapid variability which is unique to individual…
The fraction of quasar's and gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows that vary due to microlensing by the stellar populations of intervening elliptical/S0 galaxies is computed by combining the joint distribution of effective microlensing…
We discuss the effects of microlensing on the broad emission lines (BELs) of QSOs in the light of recent determinations of the size of the broad line region (BLR) and its scaling with QSO luminosity. Microlensing by star-sized objects can…
From the peak of a gravitational microlensing high-magnification event in the A component of QSO 2237+0305, which was accurately monitored by the GLITP collaboration, we derived new information on the nature and size of the optical V-band…
We use single-epoch spectroscopy of three gravitationally lensed quasars, HE0435-1223, WFI2033-4723, and HE2149-2745, to study their inner structure (BLR and continuum source). We detect microlensing-induced magnification in the wings of…
We determine the intrinsic axial ratio distribution of the 'gas' disks of extremely faint M_B > -14.5 dwarf irregular galaxies. We start with the measured (beam corrected) distribution of apparent axial ratios in the HI 21cm images of dwarf…
We study a recently observed gravitational microlensing peak in the V-band light curve of Q2237+0305A using a relatively simple, but highly consistent with the data (the best-fit reduced \chi^2 is very close to 1), physical model. The…
Quasars are bright active galactic nuclei powered by the accretion of matter around supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies. Their stochastic brightness variability depends on the physical properties of the accretion disk and…
Quasars are thought to be powered by supermassive black holes accreting surrounding gas. Central to this picture is a putative accretion disk which is believed to be the source of the majority of the radiative output. It is well known,…
Recent radiation-thermochemical-magnetohydrodynamic simulations resolved formation of quasar accretion disks from cosmological scales down to ~300 gravitational radii $R_{g}$, arguing they were 'hyper-magnetized' (plasma $\beta\ll1$…
Variability in gravitationally lensed quasars can be due to intrinsic fluctuations of the quasar or due to ``microlensing'' by compact objects along the line of sight. If disentangled from each other, microlens-induced variability can be…
The high gradient of magnification across the source during both small impact parameter events and caustic crossings offers a unique opportunity for determining the surface brightness profile of the source. Furthermore, models indicate that…
Context. There have been a long string of efforts to understand the source of the variability observed in microquasars, especially concerning the elusive High-Frequency Quasi-Periodic Oscillation. These oscillations are among the fastest…
An accretion flow onto a supermassive black hole is the primary process powering quasars. However, a geometry of this flow is not well constrained. Both global MHD simulations and observations suggest that there are several emission…
The method devised by Lewis et al. (1993) for calculating the light curve of a microlensed point source is expanded to two dimensions to enable the calculation of light curves of extended sources. This method is significantly faster than…
Here we show that in the case when double peaked emission lines originate from outer parts of accretion disk, their variability could be caused by perturbations in the disk emissivity. In order to test this hypothesis, we introduced a model…
Techniques of calculation of emission line profiles formed in a non--uniform accretion disk is presented. Change of the profile shape as a function of phase turn of the disk with a bright spot on the surface is analysed. A possibility of a…
Context. Observations of the effect of microlensing in gravitationally lensed quasars could potentially be used to study the structure of the source on distance scales down to the size of the supermassive black hole powering the quasar…