The Universe at extreme magnification

TL;DR

This paper investigates the likelihood and limits of extreme gravitational lensing magnifications of distant cosmic objects, considering microlenses and their implications for observing faint sources and dark matter.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive model combining halo mass functions, density profiles, and ray tracing to estimate probabilities of extreme magnifications including microlens effects.

Findings

Maximum magnification is limited by microlenses near critical curves.

Future observations will detect more highly-magnified distant objects.

Results can help constrain compact dark matter candidates.

Abstract

Extreme magnifications of distant objects by factors of several thousand have recently become a reality. Small very luminous compact objects, such as supernovae (SNe), giant stars at z=1-2, Pop III stars at z>7 and even gravitational waves from merging binary black holes near caustics of gravitational lenses can be magnified to many thousands or even tens of thousands thanks to their small size. We explore the probability of such extreme magnifications in a cosmological context including also the effect of microlenses near critical curves. We show how a natural limit to the maximum magnification appears due to the presence of microlenses near critical curves. We use a combination of state of the art halo mass functions, high-resolution analytical models for the density profiles and inverse ray tracing to estimate the probability of magnification near caustics. We estimate the rate of highly-magnified events in the case of SNe, GW and very luminous stars including Pop III stars. Our findings reveal that future observations will increase the number of events at extreme magnifications opening the door not only to study individual sources at cosmic distances but also to constrain compact dark matter candidates.