Quasars Lensed by Globular Clusters of Spiral and Elliptical Galaxies

TL;DR

This study investigates the association between quasars and galaxies by analyzing close pairs and their distribution, proposing that halo globular clusters cause magnification and splitting of quasar images, indicating a physical connection.

Contribution

It introduces a hypothesis that halo globular clusters cause quasar magnification and provides evidence of their distribution matching globular cluster profiles in galaxy halos.

Findings

Quasars in close pairs follow globular cluster density profiles.

Quasars are likely associated with galaxies via halo globular clusters.

Distribution slopes differ between elliptical and spiral galaxy halos.

Abstract

Based on the SDSS catalog, we have found new close quasar-galaxy pairs. Quasars projected onto the halos of nearer galaxies are encountered among the multitude of quasars observed at various distances from us. Among them there are quasars that are close to the galaxies not only in angular separation, but also in redshift. Such quasar-galaxy pairs are called close pairs. We developed further the hypothesis that such pairs appear, because the fluxer on the nucleus of the more distant galaxy passes through halo globular clusters of the nearer galaxy,resulting in magnification and splitting of the image of the source that we interpret as a quasar. To corroborate this hypothesis, we analyzed the distribution of quasars in the plane of the halos of these galaxies. The quasars from close pairs were found to follow the density profile of globular clusters in the halos of elliptical and spiral galaxies with slopes of -1.5 and -2.4 for elliptical and spiral galaxies, respectively. This suggests that quasars do not appear near galaxies by chance and that quasars are associated with galaxies via halo globular clusters.