A 5.5-year robotic optical monitoring of Q0957+561: substructure in a non-local cD galaxy

New light curves of the gravitationally lensed double quasar Q0957+561 in the gr bands during 2008-2010 include densely sampled, sharp intrinsic fluctuations with unprecedentedly high signal-to-noise ratio. These relatively violent flux variations allow us to very accurately measure the g-band and r-band time delays between the two quasar images A and B. Using correlation functions, we obtain that the two time delays are inconsistent with each other at the 2sigma level, with the r-band delay exceeding the 417-day delay in the g band by about 3 days. We also studied the long-term evolution of the delay-corrected flux ratio B/A from our homogeneous two-band monitoring with the Liverpool Robotic Telescope between 2005 and 2010. This ratio B/A slightly increases in periods of violent activity, which seems to be correlated with the flux level in these periods. The presence of the previously reported dense cloud within the cD lensing galaxy, along the line of sight to the A image, could account for the observed time delay and flux ratio anomalies.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, 4 tables, to appear in Astronomy and Astrophysic

New two-colour light curves of Q0957+561: time delays and the origin of intrinsic variations

We extend the gr-band time coverage of the gravitationally lensed double quasar Q0957+561. New gr light curves permit us to detect significant intrinsic fluctuations, to determine new time delays, and thus to gain perspective on the mechanism of intrinsic variability in Q0957+561. We use new optical frames of Q0957+561 in the g and r passbands from January 2005 to July 2007. These frames are part of an ongoing long-term monitoring with the Liverpool robotic telescope. We also introduce two photometric pipelines that are applied to the new gr frames of Q0957+561. The transformation pipeline incorporates zero-point, colour, and inhomogeneity corrections to the instrumental magnitudes, so final photometry to the 1-2% level is achieved for both quasar components. The two-colour final records are then used to measure time delays. The gr light curves of Q0957+561 show several prominent events and gradients, and some of them (in the g band) lead to a time delay between components of 417 +/- 2 d (1 sigma). We do not find evidence of extrinsic variability in the light curves of Q0957+561. We also explore the possibility of a delay between a large event in the g band and the corresponding event in the r band. The gr cross-correlation reveals a time lag of 4.0 +/- 2.0 d (1 sigma; the g-band event is leading) that confirms a previous claim of the existence of a delay between the g and r band in this lensed quasar. The time delays (between quasar components and between optical bands) from the new records and previous ones in similar bands indicate that most observed variations in Q0957+561 (amplitudes of about 100 mmag and timescales of about 100 d) are very probably due to reverberation within the gas disc around the supermassive black hole.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in A&

Bias and consistency in time delay estimation methods: case of the double quasar HE 1104-1805

We present a short re-evaluation of a recently published time delay estimate for the gravitational lens system HE 1104-1805 with emphasis on important methodological aspects: bias of the statistics, inconsistency of the methods and use of the purposeful selection of data points(or so-called "cleaning") at the preprocessing stage. We show how the inadequate use of simple analysis methods can lead to too strong conclusions. Our analysis shows that there are indications for the time delay in HE 1104-1805 to be between -0.9 and -0.7 years, but still with a large uncertainty.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, accepted as a Letter to the Editor in A&

Seeing Star Formation Regions with Gravitational Microlensing

We qualitatively study the effects of gravitational microlensing on our view of unresolved extragalactic star formation regions. Using a general gravitational microlensing configuration, we perform a number of simulations that reveal that specific imprints of the star forming region are imprinted, both photometrically and spectroscopically, upon observations. Such observations have the potential to reveal the nature and size of these star forming regions, through the degree of variability observed in a monitoring campaign, and hence resolve the star formation regions in distant galaxies which are too small to be probed via more standard techniques.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, ApJ accepte

Short-timescale Fluctuations in the Difference Light Curves of QSO 0957+561A,B: Microlensing or Noise?

From optical R band data of the double quasar QSO 0957+561A,B, we made two new difference light curves (about 330 days of overlap between the time-shifted light curve for the A image and the magnitude-shifted light curve for the B image). We observed noisy behaviours around the zero line and no short-timescale events (with a duration of months), where the term event refers to a prominent feature that may be due to microlensing or another source of variability. Only one event lasting two weeks and rising - 33 mmag was found. Measured constraints on the possible microlensing variability can be used to obtain information on the granularity of the dark matter in the main lensing galaxy and the size of the source. In addition, one can also test the ability of the observational noise to cause the rms averages and the local features of the difference signals. We focused on this last issue. The combined photometries were related to a process consisting of an intrinsic signal plus a Gaussian observational noise. The intrinsic signal has been assumed to be either a smooth function (polynomial) or a smooth function plus a stationary noise process or a correlated stationary process. Using these three pictures without microlensing, we derived some models totally consistent with the observations. We finally discussed the sensitivity of our telescope (at Teide Observatory) to several classes of microlensing variability.Comment: MNRAS, in press (LaTeX, 14 pages, 22 eps figures

Quasar Microlensing: when compact masses mimic smooth matter

The magnification induced by gravitational microlensing is sensitive to the size of a source relative to the Einstein radius, the natural microlensing scale length. This paper investigates the effect of source size in the case where the microlensing masses are distributed with a bimodal mass function, with solar mass stars representing the normal stellar masses, and smaller masses (down to $8.5\times 10^{-5}$M$_\odot$) representing a dark matter component. It is found that there exists a critical regime where the dark matter is initially seen as individual compact masses, but with an increasing source size the compact dark matter acts as a smooth mass component. This study reveals that interpretation of microlensing light curves, especially claims of small mass dark matter lenses embedded in an overall stellar population, must consider the important influence of the size of the source.Comment: 6 pages, to appear in ApJ. As ever, quality of figures reduce

Continuum reverberation mapping in a z = 1.41 radio-loud quasar

Q0957+561 was the first discovered gravitationally lensed quasar. The mirage shows two images of a radio-loud quasar at redshift z = 1.41. The time lag between these two images is well established around one year. We detected a very prominent variation in the optical brightness of Q0957+561A at the beginning of 2009, which allowed us to predict the presence of significant intrinsic variations in multi-wavelength light curves of Q0957+561B over the first semester of 2010. To study the predicted brightness fluctuations of Q0957+561B, we conducted an X-ray, NUV, optical and NIR monitoring campaign using both ground-based and space-based facilities. The continuum NUV-optical light curves revealed evidence of a centrally irradiated, standard accretion disk. In this paper, we focus on the radial structure of the standard accretion disk and the nature of the central irradiating source in the distant radio-loud active galactic nucleus (AGN).Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, Proceedings of The Central Kiloparsec in Galactic Nuclei-AHAR2011 Conference, to appear in Journal of Physics: Conference Series (2012

First robotic monitoring of a lensed quasar: intrinsic variability of SBS 0909+532

To go into the details about the variability of the double quasar SBS 0909+532, we designed a monitoring programme with the 2 m Liverpool Robotic Telescope in the r Sloan filter, spanning 1.5 years from 2005 January to 2006 June. The r-band light curves of the A and B components, several cross-correlation techniques and a large number of simulations (synthetic light curves) lead to a robust delay of 49 +/- 6 days (1-sigma interval) that agrees with our previous results (the B component is leading). Once the time delay and the magnitude offset are known, the magnitude- and time-shifted light curve of image A is subtracted from the light curve of image B. This difference light curve of SBS 0909+532 is consistent with zero, so any possible extrinsic signal must be very weak, i.e., the observed variability in A and B is basically due to observational noise and intrinsic signal. We then make the combined light curve and analyse its statistical properties (structure functions). The structure function of the intrinsic luminosity is fitted to predictions of simple models of two physical scenarios: accretion disc instabilities and nuclear starbursts. Although no simple model is able to accurately reproduce the observed trend, symmetric triangular flares in an accretion disc seems to be the best option to account for it.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures and 2 tables (including information on the robotic monitoring and the final fluxes). Accepted for publication in New Astronom