Predicting gravitational lensing by stellar remnants

Alexander J. Harding, R. Di Stefano, Sébastien Lépine, J. O. Urama, Dang Pham, Claire Baker

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2017

Abstract

Gravitational lensing provides a means to measure mass that does not rely on detecting and analysing light from the lens itself. Compact objects are ideal gravitational lenses, because they have relatively large masses and are dim. In this paper, we describe the prospects for predicting lensing events generated by the local population of compact objects, consisting of 250 neutron stars, five black holes, and ≈35 000 white dwarfs. By focusing on a population of nearby compact objects with measured proper motions and known distances from us, we can measure their masses by studying the characteristics of any lensing event they generate. Here, we concentrate on shifts in the position of a background source due to lensing by a foreground compact object. With Hubble Space Telescope, JWST, and Gaia, measurable centroid shifts caused by lensing are relatively frequent occurrences. We find that 30–50 detectable events per decade are expected for white dwarfs. Because relatively few neutron stars and black holes have measured distances and proper motions, it is more difficult to compute realistic rates for them. However, we show that at least one isolated neutron star has likely produced…

Cite as (BibTeX)

@article{harding-2017-predicting-gravitational-lensing-by,
  title={Predicting gravitational lensing by stellar remnants},
  author={Alexander J. Harding and R. Di Stefano and Sébastien Lépine and J. O. Urama and Dang Pham and Claire Baker},
  journal={Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society},
  year={2017},
  doi={10.1093/mnras/stx2985}
}