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Post Info TOPIC: HE 1104-1805


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RE: HE 1104-1805
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Title: The Structure of HE 1104-1805 from Infrared to X-Ray
Authors: Jeffrey A. Blackburne (1), Christopher S. Kochanek (1), Bin Chen (2), Xinyu Dai (2), George Chartas (3) ((1) Ohio State, (2) University of Oklahoma, (3) College of Charleston)

The gravitationally lensed quasar HE 1104-1805 has been observed at a variety of wavelengths ranging from the mid-infrared to X-ray for nearly 20 years. We combine flux ratios from the literature, including recent Chandra data, with new observations from the SMARTS telescope and HST, and use them to investigate the spatial structure of the central regions using a Bayesian Monte Carlo analysis of the microlensing variability. The wide wavelength coverage allows us to constrain not only the accretion disk half-light radius r_½, but the power-law slope \xi\ of the size-wavelength relation r_½ ~ \lambda^\xi. With a logarithmic prior on the source size, the (observed-frame) R-band half-light radius log(r_½/cm) is 16.0+0.3-0.4, and the slope \xi\ is 1.0+0.30-0.56. We put upper limits on the source size in soft (0.4-1.2 keV) and hard (1.2-8 keV) X-ray bands, finding 95% upper limits on log (r_½/cm) of 15.33 in both bands. A linear prior yields somewhat larger sizes, particularly in the X-ray bands. For comparison, the gravitational radius, using a black hole mass estimated using the H\beta\ line, is log(r_g/cm) = 13.94. We find that the accretion disk is probably close to face-on, with cos i = 1.0 being four times more likely than cos i = 0.5. We also find probability distributions for the mean mass of the stars in the foreground lensing galaxy, the direction of the transverse peculiar velocity of the lens, and the position angle of the projected accretion disk's major axis (if not face-on).

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Hubble Directly Observes the Disc Around a Black Hole

A team of scientists has used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to observe a quasar accretion disc - a brightly glowing disc of matter that is slowly being sucked into its galaxys central black hole. Their study makes use of a novel technique that uses gravitational lensing to give an immense boost to the power of the telescope. The incredible precision of the method has allowed astronomers to directly measure the discs size and plot the temperature across different parts of the disc.
An international team of astronomers has used a new technique to study the bright disc of matter surrounding a faraway black hole. Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, combined with the gravitational lensing effect of stars in a distant galaxy, the team measured the discs size and studied the colours (and hence the temperatures) of different parts of the disc. These observations show a level of precision equivalent to spotting individual grains of sand on the surface of the Moon.

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