skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


Title: Stellar prospects for FRB gravitational lensing
ABSTRACT Gravitational lensing of fast radio bursts (FRBs) offers an exciting avenue for several cosmological applications. However, it is not yet clear how many such events future surveys will detect nor how to optimally find them. We use the known properties of FRBs to forecast detection rates of gravitational lensing on delay time-scales from microseconds to years, corresponding to lens masses spanning 15 orders of magnitude. We highlight the role of the FRB redshift distribution on our ability to observe gravitational lensing. We consider cosmological lensing of FRBs by stars in foreground galaxies and show that strong stellar lensing will dominate on microsecond time-scales. Upcoming surveys such as DSA-2000 and CHORD will constrain the fraction of dark matter in compact objects (e.g. primordial black holes) and may detect millilensing events from intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) or small dark matter halos. Coherent all-sky monitors will be able to detect longer-duration lensing events from massive galaxies, in addition to short time-scale lensing. Finally, we propose a new application of FRB gravitational lensing that will measure directly the circumgalactic medium of intervening galaxies.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1836018
PAR ID:
10457320
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume:
521
Issue:
3
ISSN:
0035-8711
Page Range / eLocation ID:
4024 to 4038
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; (, Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics)
    Abstract The Gaia satellite is cataloging the astrometric properties of an unprecedented number of stars in the Milky Way with extraordinary precision. This provides a gateway for conducting extensive surveys of transient astrometric lensing events caused by dark compact objects. In this work, we establish a data analysis pipeline capable of searching for such events in the upcoming Gaia Data Release 4 (DR4). We use Gaia Early Data Release 3 (EDR3) and current dark matter and astrophysical black hole population models to create mock DR4 catalogs containing stellar trajectories perturbed by lensing. Our analysis of these mock catalogs suggests that Gaia DR4 will contain about 4 astrometric lensing events from astrophysical black holes at a 5 σ significance level. Furthermore, we project that our data analysis pipeline applied to Gaia DR4 will result in leading constraints on compact dark matter in the mass range 1–10 3   M ⊙ down to a dark matter fraction of about one percent. 
    more » « less
  2. ; (, Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics)
    We summarize our understanding of millisecond radio bursts from an extragalactic population of sources. Fast radio bursts (FRBs) occur at an extraordinary rate, thousands per day over the entire sky with radiation energy densities at the source about ten billion times larger than those from Galactic pulsars. We survey FRB phenomenology, source models and host galaxies, coherent radiation models, and the role of plasma propagation effects in burst detection. The FRB field is guaranteed to be exciting: New telescopes will expand the sample from the current ∼80 unique burst sources (and only a few secure localizations and redshifts) to thousands, with burst localizations that enable host-galaxy redshifts emerging directly from interferometric surveys. ▪ FRBs are now established as an extragalactic phenomenon. ▪ Only a few sources are known to repeat. Despite the failure to redetect other FRBs, they are not inconsistent with all being repeaters. ▪ FRB sources may be new, exotic kinds of objects or known types in extreme circumstances. Many inventive models exist, ranging from alien spacecraft to cosmic strings, but those concerning compact objects and supermassive black holes have gained the most attention. A rapidly rotating magnetar is a promising explanation for FRB 121102 along with the persistent source associated with it, but alternative source models are not ruled out for it or other FRBs. ▪ FRBs are powerful tracers of circumsource environments, “missing baryons” in the intergalactic medium (IGM), and dark matter. ▪ The relative contributions of host galaxies and the IGM to propagation effects have yet to be disentangled, so dispersion measure distances have large uncertainties. 
    more » « less
  3. ; ; ; (, Astrophysical journal)
    In the age of large-scale galaxy and lensing surveys, such as DESI, Euclid, Roman, and Rubin, we stand poised to usher in a transformative new phase of data-driven cosmology. To fully harness the capabilities of these surveys, it is critical to constrain the poorly understood influence of baryon feedback physics on the matter power spectrum. We investigate the use of a powerful and novel cosmological probe, fast radio bursts (FRBs), to capture baryonic effects on the matter power spectrum, leveraging simulations from the Cosmology and Astrophysics with MachinE Learning Simulations (or CAMELS) project, including IllustrisTNG, SIMBA, and Astrid. We find that FRB statistics exhibit a strong correlation, independent of the subgrid model and cosmology, with quantities known to encapsulate baryonic impacts on the matter power spectrum, such as baryon spread and the halo baryon fraction. We propose an innovative method utilizing FRB observations to quantify the effects of feedback physics and enhance weak-lensing measurements of S8. We outline the necessary steps to prepare for the imminent detection of large FRB populations in the coming years, focusing on understanding the redshift evolution of FRB observables and mitigating the effects of cosmic variance. 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; ; (, The Astrophysical Journal)
    Abstract In the age of large-scale galaxy and lensing surveys, such as DESI, Euclid, Roman, and Rubin, we stand poised to usher in a transformative new phase of data-driven cosmology. To fully harness the capabilities of these surveys, it is critical to constrain the poorly understood influence of baryon feedback physics on the matter power spectrum. We investigate the use of a powerful and novel cosmological probe, fast radio bursts (FRBs), to capture baryonic effects on the matter power spectrum, leveraging simulations from the Cosmology and Astrophysics with MachinE Learning Simulations (or CAMELS) project, including IllustrisTNG, SIMBA, and Astrid. We find that FRB statistics exhibit a strong correlation, independent of the subgrid model and cosmology, with quantities known to encapsulate baryonic impacts on the matter power spectrum, such as baryon spread and the halo baryon fraction. We propose an innovative method utilizing FRB observations to quantify the effects of feedback physics and enhance weak-lensing measurements ofS8. We outline the necessary steps to prepare for the imminent detection of large FRB populations in the coming years, focusing on understanding the redshift evolution of FRB observables and mitigating the effects of cosmic variance. 
    more » « less
  5. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; (, The Astrophysical Journal)
    Abstract Primordial black holes (PBHs), theorized to have originated in the early Universe, are speculated to be a viable form of dark matter. If they exist, they should be detectable through photometric and astrometric signals resulting from gravitational microlensing of stars in the Milky Way. Population Synthesis for Compact-object Lensing Events, orPopSyCLE, is a simulation code that enables users to simulate microlensing surveys, and is the first of its kind to include both photometric and astrometric microlensing effects, which are important for potential PBH detection and characterization. To estimate the number of observable PBH microlensing events, we modifyPopSyCLEto include a dark matter halo consisting of PBHs. We detail our PBH population model, and demonstrate ourPopSyCLE+ PBH results through simulations of the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment-IV (OGLE-IV) and Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (Roman) microlensing surveys. We provide a proof-of-concept analysis for adding PBHs intoPopSyCLE, and thus include many simplifying assumptions, such asfDM, the fraction of dark matter composed of PBHs, and m ¯ PBH , mean PBH mass. Assuming m ¯ PBH = 30 M⊙, we find ∼3.6fDMtimes as many PBH microlensing events than stellar evolved black hole events, a PBH average peak Einstein crossing time of ∼91.5 days, estimate on order of 102fDMPBH events within the 8 yr OGLE-IV results, and estimate Roman to detect ∼1000fDMPBH microlensing events throughout its planned microlensing survey. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email