Abstract
We present a blind time-delay strong lensing (TDSL) cosmographic analysis of the doubly imaged quasar SDSS 1206+4332 . We combine the relative time delay between the quasar images, Hubble ...Space Telescope imaging, the Keck stellar velocity dispersion of the lensing galaxy, and wide-field photometric and spectroscopic data of the field to constrain two angular diameter distance relations. The combined analysis is performed by forward modelling the individual data sets through a Bayesian hierarchical framework, and it is kept blind until the very end to prevent experimenter bias. After unblinding, the inferred distances imply a Hubble constant H0 = 68.8$^{+5.4}_{-5.1}$ km s−1 Mpc−1, assuming a flat Λ cold dark matter cosmology with uniform prior on Ωm in 0.05, 0.5. The precision of our cosmographic measurement with the doubly imaged quasar SDSS 1206+4332 is comparable with those of quadruply imaged quasars and opens the path to perform on selected doubles the same analysis as anticipated for quads. Our analysis is based on a completely independent lensing code than our previous three H0LiCOW systems and the new measurement is fully consistent with those. We provide the analysis scripts paired with the publicly available software to facilitate independent analysis (footnote with link to www.h0licow.org). The consistency between blind measurements with independent codes provides an important sanity check on lens modelling systematics. By combining the likelihoods of the four systems under the same prior, we obtain H0 = 72.5$^{+2.1}_{-2.3}$ km s−1 Mpc−1. This measurement is independent of the distance ladder and other cosmological probes.
Line profile distortions are commonly observed in gravitationally lensed quasar spectra. These distortions are caused by microlensing from the stars in the lensing galaxy, which produce differential ...magnification of spatially and kinematically separated parts of the broad line region (BLR). The quasi-simultaneous visible and near-infrared spectroscopy of the lensed quasar Q2237+0305 reveals strong microlensing-induced line deformations in the high-ionization C
IV
λ
1549 Å and the low-ionization H
α
emission lines. We use this effect to constrain the BLR size, geometry, and kinematics in Q2237+0305. For this purpose, we modeled the deformation of the emission lines for three representative BLR models: a Keplerian disk, an equatorial wind, and a biconical polar wind. We considered various inclinations with respect to the line of sight. We find that the observed microlensing effect, characterized by a set of four indices, can only be reproduced by a subsample of the considered BLR models. The microlensing analysis favors a Keplerian disk model for the regions emitting the C
IV
and the H
α
emission lines. A polar wind model remains possible for the C
IV
BLR, although it is less likely. The equatorial wind model is totally excluded. A preferred inclination of the BLR of 40° is found, in agreement with expectations for a type 1 AGN and past constraints on the accretion disk inclination. The half-light radius of the BLR is
r
1/2
≃ 47 ± 19 light-days, with no significant difference between the C
IV
and H
α
BLRs. The size of the C
IV
BLR agrees with the radius-luminosity relation derived from reverberation mapping, while the size of the Balmer line BLR is one order of magnitude smaller, possibly revealing different quasar properties at high luminosities and high accretion rates.
Lensed quasars are powerful cosmic laboratories; they are used to simultaneously probe various astrophysical phenomena. Microlensing by stars within distant galaxies acts as strong gravitational ...lenses of multiply imaged quasars, and provides a unique and direct measurement of the lensed quasar internal structure. Microlensing of the continuum emitting region as well as the broad-line region (BLR) is well characterized by four observable indices, μ cont , μ BLR , WCI (wing-core), and RBI (red-blue), measured directly from the spectra. During the 2004−2007 monitoring period, image A of the quadruply lensed system Q2237+0305 underwent a strong microlensing amplification, while image D remained unaffected. We used 35 epochs of archival spectrophotometric data of Q2237+0305 obtained with the Very Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory to develop an independent microlensing method for estimating the geometry and size of the BLR. We measured the index time series for the C IV line and the continuum emission at 1450 Å. We built a library of the simulated microlensing index time series that reproduce the observed times series based on three representative BLR models: Keplerian disk (KD), polar wind (PW), and equatorial wind (EW). After sampling the model parameter space, we find that KD is the predominant model, while PW and EW are less likely. We infer that the system is viewed at an intermediate viewing angle i ∼ 35°, and we estimate the most likely C IV BLR half-light radius r 1/2 = 51 ± 23 light days. Our results are in good agreement with previous findings in the literature and extend the validity of the index-based approach to a temporal domain.
COSMOGRAIL is a long-term photometric monitoring of gravitationally lensed quasars aimed at implementing Refsdal's time-delay method to measure cosmological parameters, in particular H sub(0). Given ...the long and well sampled light curves of strongly lensed quasars, time-delay measurements require numerical techniques whose quality must be assessed. To this end, and also in view of future monitoring programs or surveys such as the LSST, a blind signal processing competition named Time Delay Challenge 1 (TDC1) was held in 2014. The aim of the present paper, which is based on the simulated light curves from the TDC1, is double. First, we test the performance of the time-delay measurement techniques currently used in COSMOGRAIL. Second, we analyse the quantity and quality of the harvest of time delays obtained from the TDC1 simulations. To achieve these goals, we first discover time delays through a careful inspection of the light curves via a dedicated visual interface. Our measurement algorithms can then be applied to the data in an automated way. We show that our techniques have no significant biases, and yield adequate uncertainty estimates resulting in reduced chi super(2) values between 0.5 and 1.0. We provide estimates for the number and precision of time-delay measurements that can be expected from future time-delay monitoring campaigns as a function of the photometric signal-to-noise ratio and of the true time delay. We make our blind measurements on the TDC1 data publicly available.
Strong gravitational lenses with measured time delays between the multiple images and models of the lens mass distribution allow a one-step determination of the time-delay distance, and thus a ...measure of cosmological parameters. We present a blind analysis of the gravitational lens RXJ1131-1231 incorporating (1) the newly measured time delays from COSMOGRAIL, the COSmological MOnitoring of GRAvItational Lenses, (2) archival Hubble Space Telescope imaging of the lens system, (3) a new velocity-dispersion measurement of the lens galaxy of 323 + or- 20 km ssup -1 based on Keck spectroscopy, and (4) a characterization of the line-of-sight structures via observations of the lens' environment and ray tracing through the Millennium Simulation. The joint analysis of the data sets allows a time-delay distance measurement to 6% precision that takes into account all known systematic uncertainties. Our measurement of the Hubble constant is completely independent of those based on the local distance ladder method, providing an important consistency check of the standard cosmological model and of general relativity.
Context. Since April 5, 2008 and up to February 15, 2017, the SOLar SPECtrometer (SOLSPEC) instrument of the SOLAR payload on board the International Space Station (ISS) has performed accurate ...measurements of solar spectral irradiance (SSI) from the middle ultraviolet to the infrared (165 to 3088 nm). These measurements are of primary importance for a better understanding of solar physics and the impact of solar variability on climate. In particular, a new reference solar spectrum (SOLAR-ISS) is established in April 2008 during the solar minima of cycles 23–24 thanks to revised engineering corrections, improved calibrations, and advanced procedures to account for thermal and aging corrections of the SOLAR/SOLSPEC instrument. Aims. The main objective of this article is to present a new high-resolution solar spectrum with a mean absolute uncertainty of 1.26% at 1σ from 165 to 3000 nm. This solar spectrum is based on solar observations of the SOLAR/SOLSPEC space-based instrument. Methods. The SOLAR/SOLSPEC instrument consists of three separate double monochromators that use concave holographic gratings to cover the middle ultraviolet (UV), visible (VIS), and infrared (IR) domains. Our best ultraviolet, visible, and infrared spectra are merged into a single absolute solar spectrum covering the 165–3000 nm domain. The resulting solar spectrum has a spectral resolution varying between 0.6 and 9.5 nm in the 165–3000 nm wavelength range. We build a new solar reference spectrum (SOLAR-ISS) by constraining existing high-resolution spectra to SOLAR/SOLSPEC observed spectrum. For that purpose, we account for the difference of resolution between the two spectra using the SOLAR/SOLSPEC instrumental slit functions. Results. Using SOLAR/SOLSPEC data, a new solar spectrum covering the 165–3000 nm wavelength range is built and is representative of the 2008 solar minimum. It has a resolution better than 0.1 nm below 1000 nm and 1 nm in the 1000–3000 nm wavelength range. The new solar spectrum (SOLAR-ISS) highlights significant differences with previous solar reference spectra and with solar spectra based on models. The integral of the SOLAR-ISS solar spectrum yields a total solar irradiance of 1372.3 ± 16.9 Wm−2 at 1σ, that is yet 11 Wm−2 over the value recommended by the International Astronomical Union in 2015.
Gravitational microlensing is a powerful tool for probing the inner structure of strongly lensed quasars and for constraining parameters of the stellar mass function of lens galaxies. This is ...achieved by analysing microlensing light curves between the multiple images of strongly lensed quasars and accounting for the effects of three main variable components: (1) the continuum flux of the source, (2) microlensing by stars in the lens galaxy, and (3) reverberation of the continuum by the broad line region (BLR). The latter, ignored by state-of-the-art microlensing techniques, can introduce high-frequency variations which we show carry information on the BLR size. We present a new method that includes all these components simultaneously and fits the power spectrum of the data in the Fourier space rather than the observed light curve itself. In this new framework, we analyse COSMOGRAIL light curves of the two-image system QJ 0158-4325 known to display high-frequency variations. Using exclusively the low-frequency part of the power spectrum, our constraint on the accretion disk radius agrees with the thin-disk model estimate and the results of previous work where the microlensing light curves were fit in real space. However, if we also take into account the high-frequency variations, the data favour significantly smaller disk sizes than previous microlensing measurements. In this case, our results are only in agreement with the thin-disk model prediction only if we assume very low mean masses for the microlens population, i.e. ⟨
M
⟩ = 0.01
M
⊙
. At the same time, including the differentially microlensed continuum reverberation by the BLR successfully explains the high frequencies without requiring such low-mass microlenses. This allows us to measure, for the first time, the size of the BLR using single-band photometric monitoring; we obtain
R
BLR
= 1.6
−0.8
+1.5
× 10
17
cm, in good agreement with estimates using the BLR size–luminosity relation.
When an image of a strongly lensed quasar is microlensed, the different components of its spectrum are expected to be differentially magnified owing to the different sizes of the corresponding ...emitting region. Chromatic changes are expected to be observed in the continuum while the emission lines should be deformed as a function of the size, geometry and kinematics of the regions from which they originate. Microlensing of the emission lines has been reported only in a handful of systems so far. In this paper we search for microlensing deformations of the optical spectra of pairs of images in 17 lensed quasars with bolometric luminosities between 1044.7 − 47.4 erg/s and black hole masses 107.6 − 9.8 M⊙. This sample is composed of 13 pairs of previously unpublished spectra and four pairs of spectra from literature. Our analysis is based on a simple spectral decomposition technique which allows us to isolate the microlensed fraction of the flux independently of a detailed modeling of the quasar emission lines. Using this technique, we detect microlensing of the continuum in 85% of the systems. Among them, 80% show microlensing of the broad emission lines. Focusing on the most common emission lines in our spectra (C III and Mg II) we detect microlensing of either the blue or the red wing, or of both wings with the same amplitude. This observation implies that the broad line region is not in general spherically symmetric. In addition, the frequent detection of microlensing of the blue and red wings independently but not simultaneously with a different amplitude, does not support existing microlensing simulations of a biconical outflow. Our analysis also provides the intrinsic flux ratio between the lensed images and the magnitude of the microlensing affecting the continuum. These two quantities are particularly relevant for the determination of the fraction of matter in clumpy form in galaxies and for the detection of dark matter substructures via the identification of flux ratio anomalies.
If the disappearance of the broad emission lines observed in changing-look quasars were caused by the obscuration of the quasar core through moving dust clouds in the torus, high linear polarization ...typical of type 2 quasars would be expected. We measured the polarization of the changing-look quasar J1011+5442 in which the broad emission lines have disappeared between 2003 and 2015. We found a polarization degree compatible with null polarization. This measurement suggests that the observed change of look is not due to a change of obscuration hiding the continuum source and the broad line region, and that the quasar is seen close to the system axis. Our results thus support the idea that the vanishing of the broad emission lines in J1011+5442 is due to an intrinsic dimming of the ionizing continuum source that is most likely caused by a rapid decrease in the rate of accretion onto the supermassive black hole.
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