Microlensing of close binary stars

TL;DR

This paper explores how gravitational microlensing can be used to detect and analyze flux from close binary star systems, potentially providing new insights into their structure and properties.

Contribution

It demonstrates the possibility of detecting flux from Roche lobes in close binary stars through microlensing, offering a new method to study such systems.

Findings

Detection of flux from Roche lobes possible in some microlensing events

Microlensing can constrain models of close binary stellar systems

Potential to observe binary star features otherwise difficult to detect

Abstract

The gravity due to a multiple-mass system has a remarkable gravitational effect: the extreme magnification of background light sources along extended so-called caustic lines. This property has been the channel for some remarkable astrophysical discoveries over the past decade, including the detection and characterisation of extra-solar planets, the routine analysis of limb-darkening, and, in one case, limits set on the apparent shape of a star several kiloparsec distant. In this paper we investigate the properties of the microlensing of close binary star systems. We show that in some cases it is possible to detect flux from the Roche lobes of close binary stars. Such observations could constrain models of close binary stellar systems.