Gravitational microlensing variability caused by small masses

Details Gravitational microlensing variability caused by small masses Gravitational microlensing variability caused by small masses

Oct 1993

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1993a%26a...278l...5r&link_type=abstract

Astronomy and Astrophysics (ISSN 0004-6361), vol. 278, no. 1, p. L5-L8

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

34

Gravitational Lenses, Light Curve, Quasars, Size Determination, Stellar Mass, Variability, Brightness, Star Distribution, Stellar Magnitude

Scientific paper

The microlensing variability predicted for QSO 2237+0305 some time ago (Kayser et al. 1986; Kayser & Refsdal 1989), has now definitely been observed in the lightcurves of its images (Irwin et al. 1989; Pettersen 1990; Corrigan et al. 1991; Yee & DeRobertis 1992 and Racine 1992). It has been shown by Wambsganss et al. (1990) that the observed lightcurves can be explained with lens masses from 0.1 solar mass to 1 solar mass assuming a Salpeter mass function and with source radii less than about three percent of the corresponding typical Einstein ring radius projected into the source plane, R0 proportional to the square root of M. We have found that the sources with radii up to 5 R0 can give as large variabilities as those observed (Delta m approximately equal to 0.5 mag) and at timescales consistent with the observations (Delta t approximately equal to 0.5 years), if the lens masses are about 10-5 solar mass. We also find that masses down to about 10-7 solar mass may cause an observable flickering superimposed on the variability caused by larger (stellar) masses. More accurate lightcurves over longer time spans are therefore asked for.

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