Bibcode
Vives-Arias, H.; Muñoz, J. A.; Kochanek, C. S.; Mediavilla, E.; Jiménez-Vicente, J.
Referencia bibliográfica
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 831, Issue 1, article id. 43, 7 pp. (2016).
Fecha de publicación:
11
2016
Revista
Número de citas
6
Número de citas referidas
6
Descripción
We present new mid-IR observations of the quadruply lensed quasar
Q2237+0305 taken with CanariCam on the Gran Telescopio Canarias. Mid-IR
emission by hot dust, unlike the optical and near-IR emission from the
accretion disk, is unaffected by the interstellar medium
(extinction/scattering) or stellar microlensing. We compare these
“true” ratios to the (stellar) microlensed flux ratios
observed in the optical/near-IR to constrain the structure of the quasar
accretion disk. We find a half-light radius of
{R}1/2={3.4}-2.1+5.3\sqrt{< M>
/0.3{M}ȯ } lt-day at {λ }{rest}=1736
\mathringA and an exponent for the temperature profile R\propto
{λ }p of p=0.79+/- 0.55, where p=4/3 for a standard
thin-disk model. If we assume that the differences in the mid-IR flux
ratios measured over the years are due to microlensing variability, we
find a lower limit for the size of the mid-IR-emitting region of
{R}1/2≳ 200 \sqrt{< M> /0.3{M}ȯ }
lt-day. We also test for the presence of substructure/satellites by
comparing the observed mid-IR flux ratios with those predicted from
smooth lens models. We can explain the differences if the surface
density fraction in satellites near the lensed images is α
={0.033}-0.019+0.046 for a singular isothermal
ellipsoid plus external shear mass model or α
={0.013}-0.008+0.019 for a mass model combining
ellipsoidal NFW and de Vaucouleurs profiles in an external shear.