Poster abstract details
The USNA/USNO Lensed Quasar Monitoring Program
Abstract
We describe the United States Naval Academy (USNA) -- United States Naval Observatory (USNO) lensed quasar monitoring program and present new results from our Monte Carlo microlensing analysis of the optical light curves from the lensed quasar SBS~0909+532. A recent chromatic microlensing event has permitted measurements of the size of the continuum emission region at the rest-frame center of the SDSS $r$- and $g$-bands, yielding an estimate of the temperature slope in this quasar's accretion disk. The sizes we find are significantly smaller than those recently estimated by analysis of continuum flux ratios in near-infrared (NIR) spectra, bringing into question the interpretation of microlensing analysis results from single-epoch photometry or spectra in comparison to those from observations that fully sample the microlensing timescale (e.g., photometric monitoring). We conclude with a description of the expansion of our monitoring program into the NIR, which, coupled with our ongoing $Chandra$ monitoring programs, will provide broad-spectrum constraints on the structure of quasar continuum emission regions.