## “School of Astronomy”

Back to Papers Home
Back to Papers of School of Astronomy

Paper   IPM / Astronomy / 11518
School of Astronomy
Title:   Compact object detection in self-lensing binary systems with a main-sequence star
Author(s):
 1 S. Rahvar 2 A. Mehrabi 3 M. Dominik
Status:   Published
Journal: Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.
Year:  2010
Supported by:  IPM
Abstract:
Detecting compact objects such as black holes, white dwarfs, strange (Quark) stars and neutron stars by means of their gravitational lensing effect on an observed companion in a binary system has already been suggested almost four decades ago. However, these predictions were made even before the first observations of gravitational lensing, whereas nowadays gravitational microlensing surveys towards the Galactic bulge yield almost 1000 events per year where one star magnifies the light of a more distant one.With a specific view on those experiments, we therefore carrry out simulations to assess the prospects for detection of the transient periodic magnification of the companion star, which lasts typically only a few hours binaries involving a main-sequence star. We find that the effect is practically independent of the distance of the binary system from the observer, but a limit to its detectability is given by the achievability of dense monitoring with the required photometric accuracy...

Download TeX format
back to top
scroll left or right