J/A+A/673/A88 Microlensing in gravitationally lensed quasars (Awad+, 2023)
Probing compact dark matter objects with microlensing in
gravitationally lensed quasars.
Awad P., Chan J.H.H., Millon M., Courbin F., Paic E.
<Astron. Astrophys. 673, A88 (2023)>
=2023A&A...673A..88A 2023A&A...673A..88A (SIMBAD/NED BibCode)
ADC_Keywords: QSOs ; Gravitational lensing ; Photometry ; Optical
Keywords: gravitational lensing: micro - quasars: general - dark matter
Abstract:
The microlensing signal in the light curves of gravitationally lensed
quasars can shed light on the dark matter (DM) composition in their
lensing galaxies. Here, we investigate a sample of six lensed quasars
from the most recent and best COSMOGRAIL observations: HE 1104-1805,
HE 0435-1223, RX J1131-1231, WFI 2033-4723, PG 1115+080, and
J1206+4332, yielding a total of eight microlensing light curves, when
combining independent image pairs and typically spanning ten years. We
explore the microlensing signals to determine whether the standard
assumptions on the stellar populations are sufficient to account for
the amplitudes of the measured signals or whether additional
microlenses are needed. We use the most detailed lens models to date
from the H0LiCOW/TDCOSMO collaboration to derive the microlensing
parameters, such as the convergence, shear, and stellar/dark matter
mass fraction at the position of the quasar images. We use these
parameters to generate simulated microlensing light curves. Finally,
we propose a methodology based on the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to
verify whether the observed microlensing amplitudes in our data are
compatible with the most standard scenario, whereby galaxies are
composed of stars as compact bodies and smoothly distributed DM. Given
our current sample, we show that the standard scenario cannot be
rejected, in contrast with previous results by Hawkins (2020a),
claiming that a population of stellar mass primordial black holes
(PBHs) is necessary to explain the observed amplitude of the
microlensing signal in lensed quasar light curves. We further estimate
the number of microlensing light curves needed to effectively
distinguish between the standard scenario with stellar microlensing
and a scenario that describes that all the DM contained in galaxies is
in the form of compact objects such as PBHs, with a mean mass of 0.2
Solar Masses. We find that about 900 microlensing curves from the
Rubin Observatory will be sufficient to discriminate between the two
extreme scenarios at a 95% confidence level.
Description:
Cosmograil microlensing curves of lensed quasars taken at the Euler
1.2m Swiss telescope.
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
sources.dat 86 6 List of studied sources
0435_ab.dat 31 970 Difference (A-B) light curve for HE0435-1223
0435_cd.dat 31 967 Difference (C-D) light curve for HE0435-1223
1104_ab.dat 31 77 Difference (A-B) light curve for HE1104-1805
1115_bc.dat 31 97 Difference (B-C) light curve for PG1115+080
1131_ac.dat 31 906 Difference (A-C) light curve for RXJ1131-1231
1131_bd.dat 31 532 Difference (B-D) light curve for RXJ1131-1231
1206_ab.dat 31 240 Difference (A-B) light curve for J1206+4332
2033_bc.dat 31 445 Difference (B-C) light curve for WFI2033-4723
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: sources.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 12 A12 --- Name Source name
14- 15 I2 h RAh Right ascension (J2000)
17- 18 I2 min RAm Right ascension (J2000)
20- 24 F5.2 s RAs Right ascension (J2000)
26 A1 --- DE- Declination sign (J2000)
27- 28 I2 deg DEd Declination (J2000)
30- 31 I2 arcmin DEm Declination (J2000)
33- 36 F4.1 arcsec DEs Declination (J2000)
38- 48 A11 --- FileName1 Name of first differential light curve file
50- 60 A11 --- FileName2 Name of second differential light curve file
62- 86 A25 --- SName Simbad name
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: *_*.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 12 F12.6 d HJD Median Heliocentric Julian Date (HJD-2400000)
14- 22 F9.6 mag Rmag R-band magnitude
24- 31 F8.6 mag e_Rmag R-band magnitude error
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Acknowledgements:
Petra Awad, p.awad(at)rug.nl,
Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, The Netherlands
(End) Petra Awad [Kapteyn Astron. Inst.], Patricia Vannier [CDS] 27-Mar-2023