Caustic Crossing in the Gravitational Lens Q2237+0305

Abstract

The monitoring of the gravitational lens Q2237+0305 carried out by the OGLE group during 1997--1999 is analyzed. The significant light amplifications in the C and A quasar components with maxima in mid- and late 1999, respectively, are interpreted as the crossing of microlens caustics by the source. A constraint on the emitting-region size R < 10^(15) cm has been obtained from the light-curve shape by assuming a power-law quasar brightness distribution (r^2+R^2)^(-p). To estimate the exponent p ~ 1.2 requires refining the standard model for the quasar continuum formation in an optically thick accretion disk with p = 1.5

10 pages, LaTex, 4 eps figures, to appear in Astronomy Letters

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• Statistics of Microlensing Caustic Crossings in Q~2237+0305: Peculiar Velocity of the Lens Galaxy and Accretion Disk Size
• Resolving the Innermost Region of the Accretion Disk of the Lensed Quasar Q 2237+0305 through Gravitational Microlensing
• Asymptotic Expansions and Amplification of a Gravitational Lens Near a Fold Caustic
• New VR magnification ratios of QSO 0957+561
• Constraining the Cosmological Density of Compact Objects with the Long-Term Variability of Quasars
• Probing planetary mass dark matter in galaxies: gravitational nanolensing of multiply imaged quasars
• The Water Maser in MG 0414+0534: The Influence of Gravitational Microlensing