Bibcode
Mediavilla, E.; Jiménez-Vicente, J.; Muñoz, J. A.
Bibliographical reference
Highlights on Spanish Astrophysics IX, Proceedings of the XII Scientific Meeting of the Spanish Astronomical Society held on July 18-22, 2016, in Bilbao, Spain, ISBN 978-84-606-8760-3. S. Arribas, A. Alonso-Herrero, F. Figueras, C. Hernández-Monteagudo, A. Sánchez-Lavega, S. Pérez-Hoyos (eds.), 2017 , p. 88-98
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3
2017
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
We present a quick overview of several examples that illustrate the
application of quasar microlensing to various problems of great interest
in Astrophysics and Cosmology. We start introducing the main tool for
simulating quasar microlensing, the magnification map. Then, the flux
magnification statistics obtained from the magnification maps is used to
study the quasar accretion disk size and temperature profile with
results that challenge the thin disk model. The microlensing flux
magnification statistics is also useful to determine the radial slope of
the dark matter distribution in lens galaxies. The extremely high
microlensing magnification at caustics allows to scan with horizon scale
accuracy the quasar accretion disk, spiraling around the central super
massive black hole, resolving the innermost stable circular orbit.
Finally, transverse peculiar velocities of the lens galaxies, of great
interest in cosmology, can be inferred either counting peaks in the
microlensing light curves or directly from astrometric measurements of
the highly magnified relative motions between lensed quasar images.