Predicting caustic crossing high magnification events in Q2237+0305
arXiv:astro-ph/0001306 · doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2000.03746.x
Abstract
The central regions of the gravitationally lensed quasar Q2237+0305 can be indirectly resolved on nano-arcsecond scales if viewed spectrophotometricly during a microlensing high magnification event (HME). Q2237+0305 is currently being monitored from the ground (eg. OGLE collaboration, Apache Point Observatory), with the goal, among others, of triggering ground and spacecraft based target of opportunity (TOO) observations of an HME. In this work we investigate the rate of change (trigger) in image brightness that signals an imminent HME and importantly, the separation between the trigger and the event peak. In addition, we produce colour dependent model light-curves by combining high-resolution microlensing simulations with a realistic model for a thermal accretion disc source. We make hypothetical target of opportunity spectroscopic observations using our determination of the appropriate trigger as a guide. We find that if the source spectrum varies with source radius, a 3 observation TOO program should be able to observe a microlensing change in the continuum slope following a light-curve trigger with a success rate of >80%.
17 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in M.N.R.A.S
References in corpus (7)
- Long-term optical variability properties of the Palomar-Green quasars
- The Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment. Monitoring of QSO 2237+0305
- Imaging a Quasar Accretion Disk with Microlensing
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- A small source in Q2237+0305 ?
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Cited by in corpus (7)
- Quantitative Interpretation of Quasar Microlensing Light Curves
- Size is Everything: Universal Features of Quasar Microlensing with Extended Sources
- The multiple quasar Q2237+0305 under a microlensing caustic
- Evidence for a source size of less than 2000 AU in Quasar 2237+0305
- Color Effects Associated with the 1999 Microlensing Brightness Peaks in Gravitationally Lensed Quasar Q2237+0305
- Interpretation of the OGLE Q2237+0305 microlensing light-curve
- Predicting High-magnification Events in Microlensed Quasars in the Era of LSST using Recurrent Neural Networks