Using HST to Detect Isolated Black Holes and Neutron Stars through Astrometric Microlensing
Abstract
To date, Black Hole (BH) and Neutron Star (NS) masses have been directly measured only in binaries; no isolated stellar-mass BH has been detected unambiguously within our Galaxy. We have underway a large, 3-year HST program (192 orbits) designed to detect microlensing events caused by non-luminous isolated BHs and NSs in the direction of the Galactic bulge. Our program consists of monitoring of 12 fields in the Sagittarius window of the Galactic bulge, containing a total of 1.5 million stars down to V=28. Our observations have a typical cadence of one observation every two weeks, and are primarily targeted towards detecting microlensing events caused by non-luminous isolated BHs and NSs in the Galactic disk and bulge.
The unique capability of HST imaging for microlensing observations is the addition of high-precision astrometry, allowing detection of the astrometric shift of the source during the event. Combined with the lens parallax, which can be determined from the light curve as measured by HST (and supplemented by GEMINI) observations, the astrometric shift provides a direct measurement of the lens mass. Our program is optimized to detect long-duration events, which are more likely to be caused by massive lenses. We expect to detect a few dozen long-duration microlensing events, of which 45% will show astrometric deflections, leading to direct determinations of the lens masses.- Publication:
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American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #220
- Pub Date:
- May 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012AAS...22030703S