Amplification and variability of the AGN X-ray emission due to microlensing

Abstract

We consider the contribution of microlensing to the AGN Fe K$\alpha$ line and X-ray continuum amplification and variation. To investigate the variability of the line and X-ray continuum, we studied the effects of microlensing on quasar X-ray spectra produced by crossing of a microlensing pattern across a standard relativistic accretion disk. To describe the disk emission we used a ray tracing method considering both metrics, Schwarzschild and Kerr. We found that the Fe K$\alpha$ and continuum may experience significant amplification by a microlensing event (even for microlenses of very small mass). Also, we investigate a contribution of microlensing to the X-ray variability of high-redshifted QSOs, finding that cosmologically distributed deflector may contribute significantly to the X-ray variability of high-redshifted QSOs (z>2).

arXiv comment4 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomische Nachrichten, proceedings of the ESAC Workshop "Variable and Broad Iron Lines around Black Holes"

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Microlensing of the X-ray, UV and optical emission regions of quasars: Simulations of the time-scales and amplitude variations of microlensing events
• The broad Fe Kα line and supermassive black holes
• Composite profile of the Fe K$\alpha$ spectral line emitted from a binary system of supermassive black holes
• Fast simulations of extragalactic microlensing
• An X-ray fading, UV brightening QSO at $z\approx 6$
• Q2237+0305 in X-rays: spectra and variability with XMM-Newton
• The Broad Line Region of AGN: Kinematics and Physics
• Intervening nuclear obscuration changing the X-ray look of the $z\approx 6$ QSO CFHQS J164121+375520