2:00–3:00 pm ERC 419
Host: Anowar Shajib
Martin Millon (Stanford University and EPFL) "Zooming in on quasar accretion disks with gravitational microlensing"
Microlensing is often detected in the light curves of strongly lensed quasars and it is a very powerful tool to study the inner structure of accretion disks. This technique has the sensitivity to probe sub-parsec scales at cosmological distances. In this talk, I will first explain how microlensing can be used to measure accretion disk sizes and temperature profiles. Second, I will present my work on a supermassive binary black hole candidate that we found recently, thanks to the increased resolving power introduced by microlensing. Finally, I will conclude with the new possibilities that the multi-band data provided by the Rubin observatory will open in this field.
