Microlensing of quasar ultraviolet iron emission

Abstract

We measure the differential microlensing of the UV Fe II and Fe III emission line blends between 14 quasar image pairs in 13 gravitational lenses. We find that the UV iron emission is strongly microlensed in four cases with amplitudes comparable to that of the continuum. Statistically modeling the magnifications, we infer a typical size of rs ∼ 4 √M/M⊙light-days for the Fe line-emitting regions, which is comparable to the size of the region generating the UV continuum (∼3-7 light-days). This may indicate that a significant part of the UV Fe II and Fe III emission originates in the quasar accretion disk. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.