Microlensing by natural wormholes: theory and simulations

TL;DR

This paper explores the unique gravitational lensing effects caused by negative mass objects, such as natural wormholes, including novel observational signatures and simulation results that differ from normal matter lensing.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive theoretical and numerical analysis of negative mass microlensing, highlighting distinctive observational features that could indicate the presence of natural wormholes.

Findings

Negative mass lenses cause partial or total eclipses of sources.

Time delay is replaced with a time gain in negative mass lensing.

Simulated light curves differ from those of normal matter lensing.

Abstract

We provide an in depth study of the theoretical peculiarities that arise in effective negative mass lensing, both for the case of a point mass lens and source, and for extended source situations. We describe novel observational signatures arising in the case of a source lensed by a negative mass. We show that a negative mass lens produces total or partial eclipse of the source in the umbra region and also show that the usual Shapiro time delay is replaced with an equivalent time gain. We describe these features both theoretically, as well as through numerical simulations. We provide negative mass microlensing simulations for various intensity profiles and discuss the differences between them. The light curves for microlensing events are presented and contrasted with those due to lensing produced by normal matter. Presence or absence of these features in the observed microlensing events can shed light on the existence of natural wormholes in the Universe.