A New Method to Map Flares in Quasars
arXiv:astro-ph/0305297 · doi:10.1086/376936
Abstract
Recently, Chartas et al. (2001) detected a rapid X-ray flare in the gravitationally lensed, multiple image quasar RX J0911.4+0551. Dramatic events, such as rapid X-ray flares, are useful in providing high precision measurements of the time delays between multiple images. In this paper, we argue that there is a new possibility in measurements of time delays between multiple images of gravitationally lensed quasars; constrain the locations of putative flares that give rise to the intrinsic rapid variabilities of quasars. The realization, however, of these goals cannot be presently achieved due to the limited accuracy of the current measurements. We predict that timing flares with accuracies of the order of a few seconds will be needed to probe the location of the flares. Our proposing method will work with better instruments in near future, such as XEUS.
22 pages (including 3 tables and 7 figures) Accepted to ApJ
References in corpus (14)
- First Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Determination of Cosmological Parameters
- Measuring the broadband power spectra of active galactic nuclei with RXTE
- Internal shocks in the jets of radio-loud quasars
- Chandra Detects Relativistic Broad Absorption Lines from APM 08279+5255
- Long-term optical variability properties of the Palomar-Green quasars
- Optical Variability in Active Galactic Nuclei: Starbursts or Disk Instabilities?
- The cosmological evolution of the QSO luminosity density and of the star formation rate
- Chandra Observations of QSO 2237+0305
- Strong Gravitational Lensing Time Delay Statistics and the Density Profile of Dark Halos
- High resolution optical and near-IR imaging of the quadruple quasar RX J0911.4+0551
- Temporal 1/f^αFluctuations from Fractal Magnetic Fields in Black Hole Accretion Flow
- Chandra Detects a Rapid Flare in the Gravitationally Lensed Mini-BALQSO RX J0911.4+0551
- Multiple delays in QSO 0957+561: observational evidence and interpretation
- Source Size Limitation from Variabilities of a Lensed Quasar
Cited by in corpus (6)
- High Metallicity, Photoionised Gas in Intergalactic Large-Scale Filaments
- New two-colour light curves of Q0957+561: time delays and the origin of intrinsic variations
- Estimation of time delays from unresolved photometry
- A Geometric Probe of Cosmology: I. Gravitational Lensing Time Delays and Quasar Reverberation Mapping
- A Geometric Probe of Cosmology -- II. Gravitational Lensing Time Delays and Quasar Reverberation Mapping Revisited
- Microlensing and Photon Bunching: The impact of decoherence