Chandra monitoring of QSO J2240+0321

We easily detect microlensing variability between the images in the full (0.2-8keV), soft (0.2-2keV), and hard (2-8keV) bands at very high confidence. We also detect, for the first time, chromatic microlensing differences between the soft and hard X-ray bands.

The hard X-ray band is more strongly microlensed than the soft band, suggesting that the corona above the accretion disk thought to generate the X-rays has a non-uniform electron distribution, in which the hotter and more energetic electrons occupy more compact regions surrounding the black holes. Both the hard and soft X-ray bands are more strongly microlensed than the optical (rest-frame UV) emission, indicating that the X-ray emission is more compact than the optical, confirming the microlensing results from other lenses.