Microlensing Evidence for Super-Eddington Disc Accretion in Quasars

Abstract

Microlensing by the stellar population of lensing galaxies provides an important opportunity to spatially resolve the accretion disc structure in strongly lensed quasars. Disc sizes estimated this way are on average larger than the predictions of the standard Shakura-Sunyaev accretion disk model. Analysing the observational data on microlensing variability allows to suggest that some fraction of lensed quasars (primarily, smaller-mass objects) are accreting in super-Eddington regime. Super-Eddington accretion leads to formation of an optically-thick envelope scattering the radiation formed in the disc. This makes the apparent disc size larger and practically independent of wavelength. In the framework of our model, it is possible to make self-consistent estimates of mass accretion rates and black hole masses for the cases when both amplification-corrected fluxes and radii are available.

11 pages, 5 figures; typo corrected in formula 11

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Cited by in corpus (12)

• The Average Size and Temperature Profile of Quasar Accretion Disks
• Winds Can "Blow Up" AGN Accretion Disk Sizes
• Test of the Formation mechanism of the Broad Line Region in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Reconciling the Quasar Microlensing Disc Size Problem with a Wind Model of Active Galactic Nucleus
• Quasar microlensing light curve analysis using deep machine learning
• Mid-infrared microlensing of accretion disc and dusty torus in quasars: effects on flux ratio anomalies
• Microlensing of Sub-parsec Massive Binary Black Holes in Lensed QSOs: Light Curves and Size-Wavelength Relation
• X-ray illuminated accretion discs and quasar microlensing disc sizes
• Modeling quasar accretion disc temperature profiles
• On the Eddington limit for relativistic accretion discs
• Super-Eddington accretion in the Q2237+0305 quasar?
• Apparent quasar disc sizes in the "bird's nest" paradigm