Revealing the Structure of an Accretion Disk Through Energy Dependent X-ray Microlensing

Details Revealing the Structure of an Accretion Disk Through Energy Dependent X-ray Microlensing Revealing the Structure of an Accretion Disk Through Energy Dependent X-ray Microlensing

2012-04-19

arxiv.org/abs/1204.4480v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics

20 pages, includes 10 figures, submitted to ApJ

Scientific paper

We present results from monitoring observations of the gravitationally lensed quasar RX J1131-1231 performed with the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The X-ray observations were planned with relatively long exposures that allowed a search for energy-dependent microlensing in the soft (0.2-2 keV) and hard (2-10 keV) light curves of the images of RX J1131-1231. We detect significant microlensing in the X-ray light-curves of images A and D, and energy-dependent microlensing of image D. The magnification of the soft band appears to be larger than that in the hard band by a factor of ~ 1.3 when image D becomes more magnified. This can be explained by the difference between a compact, softer-spectrum corona that is producing a more extended, harder spectrum reflection component off the disk. This is supported by the evolution of the fluorescent iron line in image D over three consecutive time-averaged phases of the light curve. In the first period, a Fe line at E = 6.36(-0.16,+0.13) keV is detected (at > 99% confidence). In the second period, two Fe lines are detected, one at E = 5.47(-0.08,+0.06) keV (detected at > 99% confidence) and another at E = 6.02(-0.07,+0.09) keV (marginally detected at > 90% confidence), and in the third period, a broadened Fe line at 6.42(-0.15,+0.19) keV is detected (at > 99% confidence). This evolution of the Fe line profile during the microlensing event is consistent with the line distortion expected when a caustic passes over the inner disk where the shape of the fluorescent Fe line is distorted by General Relativistic and Doppler effects.

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