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Abstract Quasars show a remarkable degree of atomic emission-line broadening, an observational feature which, in conjunction with a radial distance estimate for this emission from the nucleus, is often used to infer the mass of the central supermassive black hole. The radius estimate depends on the structure and kinematics of this so-called broad-line region, which is often modeled as a set of discrete emitting clouds. Here, we test an alternative kinematic disk-wind model of optically thick line emission originating from a geometrically thin accretion disk under Keplerian rotation around a supermassive black hole. We use this model to calculate broad emission-line profiles and interferometric phases to compare to GRAVITY data and previously published cloud modeling results. While we show that such a model can provide a statistically satisfactory fit to GRAVITY data for quasar 3C 273, we disfavor it as it requires 3C 273 be observed at high inclination, which observations of the radio jet orientation do not support. 

Abstract We resolve the multiple images of the binary-lens microlensing event ASASSN-22av using the GRAVITY instrument of the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). The light curves show weak binary-lens perturbations, complicating the analysis, but the joint modeling with the VLTI data breaks several degeneracies, arriving at a strongly favored solution. Thanks to precise measurements of the angular Einstein radiusθ_E= 0.724 ± 0.002 mas and microlens parallax, we determine that the lens system consists of two M dwarfs with masses ofM₁= 0.258 ± 0.008M_⊙andM₂= 0.130 ± 0.007M_⊙, a projected separation ofr_⊥= 6.83 ± 0.31 au, and a distance ofD_L= 2.29 ± 0.08 kpc. The successful VLTI observations of ASASSN-22av open up a new path for studying intermediate-separation (i.e., a few astronomical units) stellar-mass binaries, including those containing dark compact objects such as neutron stars and stellar-mass black holes.