Related papers: Determining neutron star masses with weak microlen…
Gravitational microlensing of planetary-mass objects (or "nanolensing", as it has been termed) can be used to probe the distribution of mass in a galaxy that is acting as a gravitational lens. Microlensing and nanolensing light curve…
We discuss three topics related to the neutron star (NS) mass spectrum. At first we discuss the possibility to form low-mass ($ M \stackrel{<}{\sim} 1 M_{\odot}$) and suggest this is possible only due to fragmentation of rapidly rotating…
Nearby masses can have a high probability of lensing stars in a distant background field. High-probability lensing, or mesolensing, can therefore be used to dramatically increase our knowledge of dark and dim objects in the solar…
We summarize our current knowledge of neutron star masses and radii. Recent instrumentation and computational advances have resulted in a rapid increase in the discovery rate and precise timing of radio pulsars in binaries in the last few…
The gravitational lensing of faint background galaxies by rich clusters is emerging as a very efficient method to constrain both the mass distribution of cluster of galaxies and probe the statistical properties of faint background galaxies.…
Binary pulsars are a powerful tool for probing strong gravity that still outperforms direct gravitational wave observations in a number of directions due to the remarkable accuracy of the pulsar timing. They can constrain very precisely the…
When gravitational waves pass through the nuclear star clusters of galactic lenses, they may be microlensed by the stars. Such microlensing can cause potentially observable beating patterns on the waveform due to waveform superposition and…
Based on observational facts and a variety of theoretical arguments we discuss in this work the possibility that pulsars in Low-Mass Binary Pulsar systems could be strange stars rather than neutron stars. It is shown that, although subject…
The measurement or constraint of the masses of neutron stars and their binary companions tests theories of neutron star structure and of pulsar formation and evolution. We have measured the rate of the general relativistic advance of the…
Gravitational microlensing is a new technique for studying the surfaces of distant stars. A point mass lens, usually a low-mass star from the disk, will typically resolve the surface of a red giant in the Galactic bulge, as well as amplify…
Stellar-mass black holes and neutron stars represent extremes in gravity, density, and magnetic fields. They therefore serve as key objects in the study of multiple frontiers of physics. In addition, their origin (mainly in core-collapse…
Millisecond pulsars are rapidly rotating neutron stars where general relativity plays a strong role in the propagation of light from the neutron star to observer. The observed X-ray pulse shapes carry information on the mass, radius and…
X-ray binaries are excellent laboratories to study collapsed objects. On the one hand, transient X-ray binaries contain the best examples of stellar-mass black holes while persistent X-ray binaries mostly harbour accreting neutron stars.…
Discovered over fifty years ago, neutron stars exhibit a remarkable variety of behaviors depending on their age, magnetic field strength, rotational dynamics, emission mechanisms, and surrounding environments. This diversity in their…
In this lecture, we give a first introduction to neutron stars, based on fundamental physical principles. After outlining their amazing macroscopic properties, as obtained from observations, we infer the extreme conditions of matter in…
The existence of self-bound strange stars is a long-standing mystery in astrophysics. Future astrophysical data, even with improved precision, may not allow us to discriminate them from neutron stars, given the uncertainties in…
Ever since the discovery of neutron stars it has been realized that they serve as probes of a physical regime that cannot be accessed in laboratories: strongly degenerate matter at several times nuclear saturation density. Existing nuclear…
Microlensing of gravitationally lensed quasars by the stars in the foreground lens galaxy can be used to probe the nature of dark matter, to determine the mean stellar mass in the lens galaxy, and to measure the internal structure of quasar…
The occultation of background stars by foreground Solar system objects, such as planets and asteroids, has been widely used as an observational probe to study physical properties associated with the foreground sample. Similarly, the…
Dark matter may be in the form of non-baryonic structures such as compact subhalos and boson stars. Structures weighing between asteroid and solar masses may be discovered via gravitational microlensing, an astronomical probe that has in…