Relativistic and Theoretical Astrophysics

Start year
1988
Organizational Unit

Related grants:

    General
    Description

    Introduction

    Gravitational lenses are a powerful tool for Astrophysics and Cosmology. The goals of this project are: i) to obtain a robust determination of the Hubble constant from the time delay measured between the images of a lensed quasar; ii) to study the individual and statistical properties of dark matter condensations in lens galaxies from microlensing on the images of lensed quasars; iii) to study the unresolved structure of quasars (broad and narrow emission line and continuum emission regions) from induced variations by microlensing in the photometry of the lensed quasar images as well as in the profile of their emission lines; iv) to study the variation of dust extinction properties with redshift from the determination of extinction curves in lens galaxies; (v) to develop new numerical and statistical methods to study microlensing and (vi) to detect exoplanets through gravitational microlensing.

    Principal investigator
    1. We have introduced a new method to measure the masses of the supermassive black holes of the quasars based on the gravitational redshift of the ultraviolet lines of the iron (UV Fe III). The calculated masses are in agreement with the estimates obtained using the virial theorem.

    Related publications

    Estimate of the Accretion Disk Size in the Gravitationally Lensed Quasar HE 0435–1223 Using Microlensing Magnification Statistics 2018ApJ...869..132F
    New database for a sample of optically bright lensed quasars in the northern hemisphere 2018A&A...616A.118G
    Systematic Redshift of the Fe III UV Lines in Quasars: Measuring Supermassive Black Hole Masses under the Gravitational Redshift Hypothesis 2018ApJ...862..104M
    High-redshift BL Lac Objects: Spectroscopy of Candidates 2018ApJ...861..130L
    Microlensing and Intrinsic Variability of the Broad Emission Lines of Lensed Quasars 2018ApJ...859...50F
    The Redshift of the BL Lac Object TXS 0506+056 2018ApJ...854L..32P
    Overdensity of galaxies in the environment of quasar pairs 2018MNRAS.474.4925S
    Optical Spectroscopic Survey of a Sample of Unidentified Fermi Objects 2017ApJ...851..135P
    Spectroscopy of 10 γ-Ray BL Lac Objects at High Redshift 2017ApJ...844..120P
    On the lensed blazar B0218+357 2017MNRAS.470.2814F
    On the Redshift of TeV BL Lac Objects 2017ApJ...837..144P
    Limits on the Mass and Abundance of Primordial Black Holes from Quasar Gravitational Microlensing 2017ApJ...836L..18M
    Probing the Broad-line Region and the Accretion Disk in the Lensed Quasars HE 0435-1223, WFI 2033-4723, and HE 2149-2745 Using Gravitational Microlensing 2017ApJ...835..132M
    MONDian dynamical modelling of NGC 288 with β ≠ 0 2017MNRAS.464.2930H
    What Is the Redshift of the Gamma-ray BL Lac Source S4 0954+65? 2015AJ....150..181L
    Resolving the Innermost Region of the Accretion Disk of the Lensed Quasar Q2237+0305 through Gravitational Microlensing 2015ApJ...814L..26M
    Probing the Dark Matter Radial Profile in Lens Galaxies and the Size of X-Ray Emitting Region in Quasars with Microlensing 2015ApJ...806..251J
    Dark Matter Mass Fraction in Lens Galaxies: New Estimates from Microlensing 2015ApJ...799..149J
    Statistics of Microlensing Caustic Crossings in Q 2237+0305: Peculiar Velocity of the Lens Galaxy and Accretion Disk Size 2015ApJ...798..138M
    Strong Chromatic Microlensing in HE0047–1756 and SDSS1155+6346 2014ApJ...797...61R
    UV surface brightness of galaxies from the local universe to z ~ 5 2014IJMPD..2350058L
    The extent of the Mg II absorbing circumgalactic medium of quasars 2014MNRAS.441..886F
    Photometric Decomposition of Mergers in Disk Galaxies 2014ApJ...784...16M
    The Average Size and Temperature Profile of Quasar Accretion Disks 2014ApJ...783...47J
    Long-term Monitoring, Time Delay, and Microlensing in the Gravitational Lens System Q0142-100 2013ApJ...779..144O
    Microlensing of Quasar Ultraviolet Iron Emission 2013ApJ...778..123G
    Reclassification of the nearest quasar pair candidate: SDSS J15244+3032-RXS J15244+3032 2013Ap&SS.345..199F
    Microlensing of Quasar Broad Emission Lines: Constraints on Broad Line Region Size 2013ApJ...764..160G
    The quasar MBH-Mhost relation through cosmic time - II. Evidence for evolution from z = 3 to the present age 2010MNRAS.402.2453D
    The quasar MBH-Mhost relation through cosmic time - I. Data set and black hole masses 2010MNRAS.402.2441D
    Testing Newtonian gravity in the low acceleration regime with globular clusters: the case of ω Centauri revisited 2010A&A...523A..43S
    RXJ 0921+4529: A Binary Quasar or a Gravitational Lens? 2010ApJ...721L.139P
    New Developments on Inverse Polygon Mapping to Calculate Gravitational Lensing Magnification Maps: Optimized Computations 2011ApJ...741...42M
    Measuring Microlensing Using Spectra of Multiply Lensed Quasars 2012ApJ...755...82M
    Detection of Chromatic Microlensing in Q 2237 + 0305 A 2009ApJ...691.1292M
    Contribution of a disc component to single-peaked broad lines of active galactic nuclei 2009MNRAS.400..924B
    A Study of Gravitational Lens Chromaticity with the Hubble Space Telescope 2011ApJ...742...67M
    A Study of Gravitational Lens Chromaticity Using Ground-based Narrowband Photometry 2011ApJ...728..145M
    A Robust Determination of the Size of Quasar Accretion Disks Using Gravitational Microlensing 2012ApJ...751..106J
    Microlensing-based Estimate of the Mass Fraction in Compact Objects in Lens Galaxies 2009ApJ...706.1451M

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