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Learning about the structure of strongly lensed AGNs from their lightcurves

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2024

Dominique Sluse Open the ORCID record for Dominique Sluse [Opens in a new window]
Dominique Sluse*
Affiliation:
Univerity of Liège STAR Institute, Quartier Agora - Allée du six Août, 19c B-4000 Liège, Belgium.
*
email: dsluse@uliege.be
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Abstract

The lightcurves of strongly lensed AGNs get distorted due to gravitational microlensing, which differently magnifies the emission regions of AGNs depending on their size. This effect has been used to measure the size of the AGN accretion disc, but high photometric accuracy lightcurves reveal coherent variations on short time-scales that are not expected by standard accretion disc models. I show that this signal can be produced by emission from the Broad Line Region (BLR) but also by extended (diffuse) continuum emission. I explain how these features can be used to measure the size of the BLR but also reveal additional sources of emission. The multi-colour lightcurves of lensed AGNs, such as those to be obtained with the Vera Rubin Observatory, may become a powerful new tool to reveal the sub-parsec structure of AGNs, and shed light on elusive AGN emitting regions such as the one producing diffuse continuum emission.

Keywords

gravitational lensingmicro-lensing
Type
Contributed Paper
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 18 , Symposium S381: Strong Gravitational Lensing in the Era of Big Data , December 2022 , pp. 141 - 146
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of International Astronomical Union

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