Related papers: What if PSR J1910-5959A is an observable self-lens…
We report the discovery of three edge-on binaries with white dwarf companions that gravitationally magnify (instead of eclipsing) the light of their stellar primaries, as revealed by a systematic search for pulses with long periods in the…
The vast majority of binaries containing a compact object and a regular star spend most of their time in a quiescent state where no strong interactions occur between components. Detection of these binaries is extremely challenging and only…
I consider the effect of the gravitational deflection of light upon the light curves of eclipsing binary stars, focussing mainly upon systems containing at least one white dwarf component. In absolute terms the effects are small, however…
Supermassive black hole binary systems (SMBHBs) should be the most powerful sources of gravitational waves (GWs) in the Universe. Once Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs) detect the stochastic GW background from their cosmic merger history,…
We consider binary black holes (BBHs) in a hierarchical triple system where a more compact, less-massive binary is emitting detectable gravitational waves (GWs), and the tertiary is a supermassive BH at the center of a nuclear star cluster.…
Over 40% of Sun-like stars are bound in binary or multistar systems. Stellar remnants in edge-on binary systems can gravitationally magnify their companions, as predicted 40 years ago. By using data from the Kepler spacecraft, we report the…
Here we report timing measurements of the relativistic binary pulsar PSR J1141-6545 that constrain the component masses and demonstrate that the orbital period derivative \dot Pb = (-4+/-1)x10^-13 is consistent with gravitational wave…
Optical time-domain surveys can unveil and characterize exciting but less-explored non-accreting and/or non-beaming neutron stars (NS) in binaries. Here we report the discovery of such a NS candidate using the LAMOST spectroscopic survey.…
The Double Pulsar (PSR J0737-3039) is the only neutron star-neutron star (NS-NS) binary in which both NSs have been detectable as radio pulsars. The Double Pulsar has been assumed to dominate the Galactic NS-NS binary merger rate R_g among…
Massive objects located between Earth and a compact binary merger can act as a magnifying glass improving the sensitivity of gravitational wave detectors to distant events. Depending on the parameters of the system, a point mass lens…
Pulsars in relativistic binary systems have emerged as fantastic natural laboratories for testing theories of gravity, the most prominent example being the double pulsar, PSR J0737$-$3039. The HTRU-South Low Latitude pulsar survey…
Self-lensing (SL) represents a powerful technique for detecting compact objects in binary systems through gravitational microlensing effects, when a compact companion transits in front of its luminous partner. We present the first…
We comment on a recent study reporting evidence for the general relativistic Lense-Thirring secular precession of the inclination $I$ of the orbital plane to the plane of the sky of the tight binary system PSR J1141-6545 made of a white…
We investigate the effects of gravitational lensing in the binary pulsar system J0737-3039. Current measurement of the orbital inclination allows the millisecond pulsar (A) to pass very close (at R_{min}=4000 km) in projection to the…
We report on the first ground-based measurement of the relativistic beaming effect (aka Doppler boosting). We observed the beaming effect in the detached, non-interacting eclipsing double white dwarf (WD) binary NLTT 11748. Our observations…
Nearly 150 massive black hole binary (MBHB) candidates at sub-pc orbital separations have been reported in recent literature. Nevertheless, the definitive detection of even a single such object remains elusive. If at least one of the black…
Low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) containing neutron stars are both extremely luminous and compact, emitting up to ~10^6 L_sun within a kilometer-scale boundary layer. This combination allows for easy modulation, motivating X-ray SETI. When…
We report the discovery of one possible neutron star binary ($P_{\rm orb} =$ 0.8666 day) by using the LAMOST low-resolution spectroscopic data. The visible companion is a late A-type dwarf ($T_{\rm eff} = 7900 \pm 200$ K; log$g$ $=$…
Benefitting from the unequaled precision of the pulsar timing technique, binary pulsars are important testbeds of gravity theories, providing some of the tightest bounds on alternative theories of gravity. One class of well-motivated…
At present, 19 double neutron star (DNS) systems are detected by radio timing and 2 merging DNS systems are detected by kilo-hertz gravitational waves. Because of selection effects, none of them has an orbital period $P_b$ in the range of a…