Related papers: Self-Lensing in Eclipsing X-ray Binary Systems
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 show that under certain astrophysical conditions a binary system consisting of two compact objects can be stabilized against indefinite shrinking of orbits due to the emission of gravitational radiation. In this case, the lighter binary…
Eclipsing binary star systems provide the most accurate method of measuring both the masses and radii of stars. Moreover, they enable testing tidal synchronization and circularization theories, as well as constraining models of stellar…
LISA might detect gravitational waves from mergers of massive black hole binaries strongly lensed by intervening galaxies (Sereno et al. 2010). The detection of multiple gravitational lensing events would provide a new tool for cosmography.…
The understanding of the accretion process on to compact objects in binary systems is an important part of modern astrophysics. Theoretical work, primarily that of Ghosh & Lamb (1979), has made clear predictions for the behaviour of such…
The recent discovery of gravitational waves (GWs) from stellar-mass binary black holes (BBHs) provided direct evidence of the existence of these systems. BBH lenses would have gravitational microlensing signatures that are distinct from…
Ultracompact X-ray binaries (UCXBs) appear able to sustain accretion onto the compact accretor at rates lower than in wider X-ray binaries. This may be understood by the smaller accretion disks in UCXBs: a lower X-ray luminosity suffices to…
Gravitational waves can be gravitationally lensed by massive objects along their path. Depending on the lens mass and the lens--source geometry, this can lead to the observation of a single distorted signal or multiple repeated events with…
Ultracompact X-ray binaries (UCXBs) are thought to have relatively simple binary evolution post-contact, leading to clear predictions of their luminosity function. We test these predictions by studying the long-term behavior of known UCXBs…
When there is more than one source of light along the line of sight to a gravitationally lensed object, the characteristics of the observed light curve are influenced by the presence of the light that is not lensed. In this paper we develop…
Massive structures, such as galaxies, act as strong gravitational lenses on background sources. When the background source is a quasar, several lensed images are seen, as magnified or de-magnified versions of the same object. The detailed…
When the matter from a companion star is accreted towards the central compact accretor, i.e. a black hole (BH) or a neutron star (NS), an accretion disc and a jet outflow will form, providing bight X-ray and radio emission, which is known…
To unlock the full spectrum of astrophysical and cosmological applications of gravitational-wave detections, it is essential to localise the associated black-hole mergers to high precision inside their host galaxies. One possible method to…
Weak lensing is commonly measured using shear through galaxy ellipticities, or using the effect of magnification bias on galaxy number densities. Here, we report on the first detection of weak lensing magnification with a new, independent…
Spectroscopic selection has been the most productive technique for the selection of galaxy-scale strong gravitational lens systems with known redshifts. Statistically significant samples of strong lenses provide a powerful method for…
We study prospects of a method to constrain the inclination of a coalescing compact binary by detecting its gravitational waves associated with a three-dimensionally localized (direction and distance) short-hard gamma-ray burst. We take…
In this paper we propose and examine a physical mechanism which can lead to the generation of noise in the mass accretion rate of low mass X-ray binaries on time-scales comparable to the orbital period of the system. We consider modulations…
We demonstrate that gravitational lensing can be used to discover and study planets in the habitable zones of nearby dwarf stars. If appropriate software is developed, a new generation of monitoring programs will automatically conduct a…
Gravitational Lensing is an efficient tool to probe: the mass distribution of collapsed systems: galaxies and clusters; high redshift objects thanks to the gravitational amplification; and the geometry of the Universe. I will review here…
The detailed observation of the distribution of redshifts and chirp masses of binary black hole mergers is expected to provide a clue to their origin. In this paper, we develop a hybrid model of the probability distribution function of…