English

Self-Lensing Signals in Binary Systems Containing White Dwarfs with Neutron star or Stellar-mass Black hole Companions

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 2026-04-15 v1 High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Abstract

Light curves from binary systems containing white dwarfs with neutron star or stellar-mass black hole companions (WD+NS and WD+BH) with edge-on orbital planes potentially show self-lensing/eclipsing signals. Here, we evaluate the properties and detectability of these signals in the NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (Roman) observations. WD+NS systems with orbital periods T25 T\lesssim25~days mostly have considerable finite-source sizes with the normalized source radii ρ1\rho_{\star}\gtrsim1. WD+BH systems with T3T\gtrsim3 days have ρ1\rho_{\star}\lesssim1, and ρ0.01\rho_{\star}\sim0.01 for BHs with a few tens solar-mass. Our analytical calculations show the probabilities of occurring self-lensing signals in WD+NS and WD+BH systems are 103, 102\sim10^{-3},~10^{-2}, and maximize for systems with low-mass WDs revolving massive NSs/BHs. We simulate their light curves and generate synthetic data for them by applying the observing protocols of these two satellites. We assume self-lensing signals are detectable if (i) 1TTobs1\leq T\leq T_{\rm{obs}} (where Tobs=62 and 27.4T_{\rm{obs}}=62~\rm{and}~27.4 days are the Roman and TESS continuous observing windows), (ii) SNR3, 6\rm{SNR}\ge3,~6, their signals are (iii) deeper than twice the photometric error, and (iv) covered by at least one datum. Systems with detectable self-lensing signals in the TESS and Roman observations on average have small inclination angles i0.2i\lesssim0.2^{\circ}, with the orbital periods 6, 19 \sim6,~19~days, and their signals last [6, 30] minutes\sim[6,~30]~\rm{minutes}. The TESS and Roman efficiencies for detecting these signals are 26×104\sim2-6\times10^{-4} and 212×1010\sim2-12\times10^{-10}. Although detecting these self-lensing signals by Roman is impossible, the TESS telescope potentially manifests at least one self-lensing signal due to these binary systems, if 8%, and 3%8\%,~\rm{and}~3\% of WDs have NS and BH companions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2604.12705,
  title  = {Self-Lensing Signals in Binary Systems Containing White Dwarfs with Neutron star or Stellar-mass Black hole Companions},
  author = {Sedighe Sajadian and Man Ho Chan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.12705},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

16 pages, 6 figures