Gravitational microlensing of gamma-ray blazars

TY - JOUR

T1 - Gravitational microlensing of gamma-ray blazars

AU - F. Torres, Diego

AU - E. Romero, Gustavo

AU - F. Eiroa, Ernesto

AU - Wambsganss, Joachim

AU - Pessah, Martin Elias

PY - 2003/2/12

Y1 - 2003/2/12

N2 - We present a detailed study of the effects of gravitational microlensing on compact and distant $\gamma$-ray blazars. These objects have $\gamma$-ray emitting regions which are small enough as to be affected by microlensing effects produced by stars lying in intermediate galaxies. We analyze the temporal evolution of the gamma-ray magnification for sources moving in a caustic pattern field, where the combined effects of thousands of stars are taken into account using a numerical technique. We propose that some of the unidentified $\gamma$-ray sources (particularly some of those lying at high galactic latitude whose gamma-ray statistical properties are very similar to detected $\gamma$-ray blazars) are indeed the result of gravitational lensing magnification of background undetected Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs).

AB - We present a detailed study of the effects of gravitational microlensing on compact and distant $\gamma$-ray blazars. These objects have $\gamma$-ray emitting regions which are small enough as to be affected by microlensing effects produced by stars lying in intermediate galaxies. We analyze the temporal evolution of the gamma-ray magnification for sources moving in a caustic pattern field, where the combined effects of thousands of stars are taken into account using a numerical technique. We propose that some of the unidentified $\gamma$-ray sources (particularly some of those lying at high galactic latitude whose gamma-ray statistical properties are very similar to detected $\gamma$-ray blazars) are indeed the result of gravitational lensing magnification of background undetected Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs).

KW - astro-ph

KW - gr-qc

U2 - 10.1046/j.1365-8711.2003.06219.x

DO - 10.1046/j.1365-8711.2003.06219.x

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0035-8711

VL - 399

SP - 335

EP - 352

JO - Royal Astronomical Society. Monthly Notices

JF - Royal Astronomical Society. Monthly Notices

IS - 2

ER -