Microlensing of Quasar UV Iron Emission
E. Guerras, E. Mediavilla, J. Jimenez-Vicente, C.S. Kochanek, J. A., Mu\~noz, E. Falco, V. Motta, K. Rojas
TL;DR
This study measures the microlensing effects on UV iron emission lines in quasars, revealing that these emissions originate from regions comparable in size to the accretion disk, suggesting a close link.
Contribution
First measurement of differential microlensing of UV Fe II and Fe III lines in multiple quasars, indicating their emission region size is similar to the UV continuum.
Findings
UV iron emission is strongly microlensed in some quasars
Fe line emitting regions are about 4 light-days in size
UV Fe emission likely originates in the quasar accretion disk
Abstract
We measure the differential microlensing of the UV Fe II and Fe III emission line blends between 14 quasar image pairs in 13 gravitational lenses. We find that the UV iron emission is strongly microlensed in 4 cases with amplitudes comparable to that of the continuum. Statistically modeling the magnifications we infer a typical size of r ~ 4*sqrt(M/Msun) light-days for the Fe line emitting regions which is comparable to the size of the region generating the UV continuum (3 ~ 7 light-days). This may indicate that a significant part of the UV Fe II and Fe III emission originates in the quasar accretion disk.
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