The Effect of Microlensing On the Observed X-ray Energy Spectra of Gravitationally Lensed Quasars

Abstract

The Chandra observations of several gravitationally lensed quasars show evidence for flux and spectral variability of the X-ray emission that is uncorrelated between images and is thought to result from the microlensing by stars in the lensing galaxy. We report here on the most detailed modeling of such systems to date, including simulations of the emission of the Fe K-alpha fluorescent radiation from the accretion disk with a general relativistic ray tracing code, the use of realistic microlensing magnification maps derived from inverse ray shooting calculations, and the simulation of the line detection biases. We use lensing and black hole parameters appropriate for the quadruply lensed quasar RX J1131-1231, and compare the simulated results with the observational results. The simulations cannot fully reproduce the distribution of the detected line energies indicating that some of the assumptions underlying the simulations are not correct, or that the simulations are missing some important physics. We conclude by discussing several possible explanations.

16 pages, 12 figures, submitted to the Astrophysical Journal

References in corpus (30)

• Constraining Black Hole Spin Via X-ray Spectroscopy
• X-ray reverberation around accreting black holes
• Relativistic X-ray Lines from the Inner Accretion Disks Around Black Holes
• Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. II. Swift and HST Reverberation Mapping of the Accretion Disk of NGC 5548
• Sizes and Temperature Profiles of Quasar Accretion Disks from Chromatic Microlensing
• The NuSTAR spectrum of Mrk 335: Extreme relativistic effects within 2 gravitational radii of the event horizon?
• SDSS-IV MaNGA: The Spatially Resolved Stellar Initial Mass Function in $\sim$400 Early-Type Galaxies
• Multi-wavelength study of the gravitational lens system RXS J1131-1231: III. Long slit spectroscopy: micro-lensing probes the QSO structure
• The Rewards of Patience: An 822 Day Time Delay in the Gravitational Lens SDSS J1004+4112
• A calibration of the stellar mass fundamental plane at z ~ 0.5 using the micro-lensing induced flux ratio anomalies of macro-lensed quasars
• Gravitational Microlensing
• Detection of Time Lags Between Quasar Continuum Emission Bands based on Pan-STARRS Light-curves
• Exploring The Effects Of Disk Thickness On The Black Hole Reflection Spectrum
• A Consistent Picture Emerges: A Compact X-ray Continuum Emission Region in the Gravitationally Lensed Quasar SDSS J0924+0219
• Modelling the Extreme X-ray Spectrum of IRAS 13224-3809
• Multi wavelength study of the gravitational lens system RXS J1131-1231: II Lens model and source reconstruction
• Measuring the Innermost Stable Circular Orbits of Supermassive Black Holes
• The X-ray Polarization of the Accretion Disk Coronae of Active Galactic Nuclei
• Reflection From the Strong Gravity Regime in a z=0.658 Gravitationally Lensed-Quasar
• Revealing structure and evolution within the corona of the Seyfert galaxy I Zw 1
• A Two-Year Time Delay for the Lensed Quasar SDSS J1029+2623
• Probing Planets in Extragalactic Galaxies Using Quasar Microlensing
• Difficulties of Quantitative Tests of the Kerr-Hypothesis with X-Ray Observations of Mass Accreting Black Holes
• A Rapidly Spinning Black Hole Powers the Einstein Cross
• The effects of the IMF on the chemical evolution of elliptical galaxies
• Redshifts and lens profile for the double quasar QJ 0158-4325
• Broad Iron Emission from Gravitationally Lensed Quasars Observed by Chandra
• Relativistic reflection in the average X-ray spectrum of AGN in the Véron-Cetty & Véron catalogue
• Relativistic reflection from accretion disks in the population of Active Galactic Nuclei at z=0.5-4
• Molecular Gas Kinematics and Star Formation Properties of the Strongly-Lensed Quasar Host Galaxy RXS J1131-1231

Cited by in corpus (6)

• New Constraints on the Spin of the Black Hole Cygnus X-1 and the Physical Properties of its Accretion Disk Corona
• The Polarization of X-rays from Warped Black Hole Accretion Disks
• X-raying winds in distant quasars: the first high-redshift wind duty cycle
• The Iron Line Profile from Warped Black Hole Accretion Disks
• Generally Applicable Formalism for Modeling the Observable Signatures of Inflows, Outflows, and Moving Coronal Plasma Close to Kerr Black Holes
• Predicting High-magnification Events in Microlensed Quasars in the Era of LSST using Recurrent Neural Networks