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Predicting the self-lensing population in optical surveys

Predicting the self-lensing population in optical surveys
Predicting the self-lensing population in optical surveys

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 few candidates have been detected through optical spectroscopy. Self-lensing represents a new means of detecting compact objects in binaries, where gravitational lensing of the light from the visible component by the compact object produces periodic optical flares. Here we show that current and planned large-area optical surveys can detect a significant number (∼100–10 000s) of these self-lensing binaries and provide insights into the properties of the compact lenses. We show that many of the predicted population of observable self-lensing binaries will be observed with multiple self-lensing flares; this both improves the chances of detection and also immediately distinguishes them from chance-alignment micro-lensing events. Through self-lensing we can investigate long – but previously hidden – stages of binary evolution and consequently provide new constraints on evolutionary models that impact the number and nature of double compact object mergers.
binaries: general, gravitational lensing: micro, methods: numerical, stars: black holes, stars: neutron
1365-2966
374–384
Wiktorowicz, Grzegorz
f2277210-4d99-4441-aa25-c5d324dfda2b
Middleton, Matthew
f91b89d9-fd2e-42ec-aa99-1249f08a52ad
Khan, Norman
d5c7df8e-d172-494e-8fc4-4c4ef5cf951f
Ingram, Adam
01a02529-ad9f-4936-af5d-c200f88d4e53
Gandhi, Poshak
5bc3b5af-42b0-4dd8-8f1f-f74048d4d4a9
Dickinson, Hugh
42a19054-706d-4d31-b074-7f01447f0213
Wiktorowicz, Grzegorz
f2277210-4d99-4441-aa25-c5d324dfda2b
Middleton, Matthew
f91b89d9-fd2e-42ec-aa99-1249f08a52ad
Khan, Norman
d5c7df8e-d172-494e-8fc4-4c4ef5cf951f
Ingram, Adam
01a02529-ad9f-4936-af5d-c200f88d4e53
Gandhi, Poshak
5bc3b5af-42b0-4dd8-8f1f-f74048d4d4a9
Dickinson, Hugh
42a19054-706d-4d31-b074-7f01447f0213

Wiktorowicz, Grzegorz, Middleton, Matthew, Khan, Norman, Ingram, Adam, Gandhi, Poshak and Dickinson, Hugh (2021) Predicting the self-lensing population in optical surveys. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 507 (1), 374–384. (doi:10.1093/mnras/stab2135).

Record type: Review

Abstract


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 few candidates have been detected through optical spectroscopy. Self-lensing represents a new means of detecting compact objects in binaries, where gravitational lensing of the light from the visible component by the compact object produces periodic optical flares. Here we show that current and planned large-area optical surveys can detect a significant number (∼100–10 000s) of these self-lensing binaries and provide insights into the properties of the compact lenses. We show that many of the predicted population of observable self-lensing binaries will be observed with multiple self-lensing flares; this both improves the chances of detection and also immediately distinguishes them from chance-alignment micro-lensing events. Through self-lensing we can investigate long – but previously hidden – stages of binary evolution and consequently provide new constraints on evolutionary models that impact the number and nature of double compact object mergers.

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2104.12666 - Accepted Manuscript
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Accepted/In Press date: 19 July 2021
Published date: 29 July 2021
Additional Information: Funding Information: We are thankful to thousands of volunteers who took part in the Universe@Home project4 and significantly sped up the simulations. GW is partly supported by the President's International Fellowship Initiative (PIFI) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences under grant no. 2018PM0017 and by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Science Multi-waveband Gravitational Wave Universe (Grant No. XDB23040000). This work is partly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11690024, 11873056, and 11991052) and the National Key Program for Science and Technology Research and Development (Grant No. 2016YFA0400704). AI acknowledges support from the Royal Society. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society.
Keywords: binaries: general, gravitational lensing: micro, methods: numerical, stars: black holes, stars: neutron

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 451777
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/451777
ISSN: 1365-2966
PURE UUID: 6ce503b0-5080-4d53-99cd-b5346dc8ead9
ORCID for Norman Khan: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3955-0697
ORCID for Poshak Gandhi: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-3105-2615

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Date deposited: 27 Oct 2021 16:30
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:36

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Contributors

Author: Grzegorz Wiktorowicz
Author: Norman Khan ORCID iD
Author: Adam Ingram
Author: Poshak Gandhi ORCID iD
Author: Hugh Dickinson

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