Photometric monitoring of the doubly imaged quasar UM 673: possible evidence for chromatic microlensing

Abstract

We present the results of two-band CCD photometric monitoring of the gravitationally lensed quasar Q 0142-100 (UM 673). The data, obtained at ESO-La Silla with the 1.54 m Danish telescope in the Gunn i-band (October 1998-September 1999) and in the Johnson V-band (October 1998 to December 2001), were analyzed using three different photometric methods. The light-curves obtained with all methods show variations, with a peak-to-peak amplitude of 0.14 mag in V. Although it was not possible to measure the time delay between the two lensed QSO images, the brighter component displays possible evidence for microlensing: it becomes bluer as it gets brighter, as expected under the assumption of differential magnification of a quasar accretion disk.