Prediction of Black Hole and Neutron Star Mesolensing Events
Abstract
Black holes and neutron stars are ideal gravitational lenses because they have large masses and dim optical magnitudes. Lensing induced by nearby stellar objects, typically within a few kpc, is known as mesolensing. We report on our study of the spatial paths of more than 200 compact objects with measured proper motions. We predict their close approaches on the sky to background stars whose positions and magnitudes have been drawn from the Hubble Source Catalog, and from the 2MASS and USNO-A catalogs. By plotting the paths of the stellar remnants many years into the future we make predictions on when detectable events will occur. The observations provide a way of measuring the masses of the neutron star/black hole lenses. We also investigate possible future lensing events that would be caused if the compact object is orbited by dark companions, including exoplanets. Mesolensing events may be caused by exoplanets even if the compact object is unlikely to produce its own event. Constraints can be derived for planet masses and orbits both in cases with event detections and in cases in which no detection is achieved.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #227
- Pub Date:
- January 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AAS...22733803H