No abstract

Aims. We study brightness variations in the double lensed quasar UM673 (Q0142-100) with the aim of measuring the time delay between its two images. Methods. We combined our previously published observational data of UM673 obtained during the 2003-2005 seasons at the Maidanak Observatory with archival and recently observed Maidanak and CTIO UM673 data. We analyzed the V, R and I-band light curves of the A and B images of UM673, which cover ten observational seasons from August 2001 to November 2010. We also analyzed the time evolution of the difference in magnitudes (flux ratio) between images A and B of UM673 over more than ten years. Results. We find that the quasar exhibits both short-term (with an amplitude of ∼0.1 mag in the R band) and long-term (with an amplitude of ∼0.3 mag) variability on timescales of about several months and several years, respectively. These brightness variations are used to constrain the time delay between the images of UM673. From a cross-correlation analysis of the A and B quasar light curves and an error analysis we measure a mean time delay of 89 days with an rms error of 11 days. Given the input time delay of 88 days, the most probable value of the delay that can be recovered from light curves with the same statistical properties as the observed R-band light curves of UM673, is 95 +5 −16 +14−29 days (68% and 95% confidence intervals). Analysis of the V − I color variations and the V, R and I-band magnitude differences of the quasar images does not show clear evidence for microlensing variations between 1998 and 2010.

Abstract. We present photometry of the Q2237+0305 gravitational lens system in VRI spectral bands with the 1.5-m telescope of the high-altitude Maidanak observatory in 1995−2000. The time interval includes the epoch of the dramatic brightness peaks discovered previously in the A and C image components (Wozniak et al. 2000a,b). By good luck three nights of observation in 1999 were almost at the time of the strong brightness peak of image C, and approximately in the middle of the ascending slope of the brightness peak of image A. Having reached its brightness maximum at the very end of June 1999, the C component had changed its (V − I) color from 0.3 m to 0.12 m since August 1998, and from 0.56 m to 0.12 m since August 1997. It was the bluest component in the system in 1998 and 1999, but by October 2000 that was no longer the case. We do not know the color of the A component exactly at its brightness peak, but we do know that it became 0.47 m brighter in R and 0.15 m bluer in (V − R) between August 1998 and August 2000, about three months before the peak. More intensive monitoring of Q2237+0305 in July-October 2000, made on a nearly daily basis, did not reveal rapid (night-to-night and intranight) brightness variations of the components during this time period, exceeding the photometry error bars. Rather slow changes of magnitudes of the components were observed, in particular, nearly synchronous 0.08 m fading of B and C components, and 0.05 m brightening of D in the R band during July 23−October 7, 2000, while the B component had become the faintest in all filters by the end of this time period. The behavior of the colors of the components was analyzed on the basis of all our VRI observations, made in 1995−2000 on Maidanak. A qualitative tendency of the components to become bluer as their brightness increases, noted in our previous works, was confirmed quantitatively. A correlation between the color variations and variations of magnitudes of the components is demonstrated to be significant and reaches 0.75 for ∆(V − I) vs. ∆R, with a regression line slope of 0.33± 0.08 for these quantities. A plot of (V − I) vs. (V − R) shows the components settled in a cluster, stretchng along a line with a slope of 1.31 ± 0.14. Both slopes are noticeably less steep than those expected if a standard galactic interstellar reddening law were responsible for the differences between the colors of images and their variations over time. We attribute the brightness and color changes to microlensing of the quasar's structure, which we conclude to be more compact at shorter wavelengths, as predicted by most quasar models featuring an energizing central source.

No abstract

We present the results of time delay measurements between the A and B components of the gravitationally lensed quasar UM673. The measurements are based on the brightness variations of the quasar components observed with the 1.5‐m telescope of the Maidanak Observatory in the V, R and I bands during the 2003–2005 observational period. The amplitudes of variations in the R band are 0.046 and 0.122 mag for Component A and B, respectively. Due to the short visibility period of UM673, about 3 months in a year, the light curves of the quasar components have large annual gaps. It complicates the time delay estimation. From the cross‐correlation analysis, we find that the brightness variations in component B follow the brightness variations in Component A by about 150 days. We also explore the possibility of measuring the wavelength‐dependent time delay between the brightness variations in the V, R and I bands. We find that in agreement with reprocessing model of quasar variability, the brightness variation at longer wavelengths follows the brightness variations at shorter wavelengths. Finally, we show that the combination of the multiband data corrected for the wavelength‐dependent time delay can help to improve the cross‐correlation analysis of the light curves with large annual gaps.