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Probing ~100 AU Intergalactic MgII Absorbing "Cloudlets" with Quasar Microlensing

Subo Dong
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Abstract

Intergalactic MgII absorbers are known to have structures down to scales ~ 10^{2.5} pc, and there are now indications that they may be fragmented on scales <~ 10^{-2.5} pc (Hao et al., astro-ph/0612409). When a lensed quasar is microlensed, the micro-images of the quasar experience creation, destruction, distortion, and drastic astrometric changes during caustic-crossing. I show that quasar microlensing can effectively probe MgII and other absorption "cloudlets" with sizes ~ 10^{-4.0} - 10^{-2.0} pc by inducing significant spectral variability on the timescales of months to years. With numerical simulations, I demonstrate the feasibility of applying this method to Q2237+0305, and I show that high-resolution spectra of this quasar in the near future would provide a clear test of the existence of such metal-line absorption "cloudlets" along the quasar sight line.

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Subo Dong. 2006-12-18. Probing ~100 AU Intergalactic MgII Absorbing "Cloudlets" with Quasar Microlensing. https://doi.org/10.1086/513099

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