Astrophysical implications of gravitational microlensing of gravitational waves

Abstract

Astrophysical implications of gravitational microlensing of gravitational waves emitted by rotating neutron stars (NSs) are investigated. In particular, attention is focused on the following situations: i) NSs in the galactic bulge lensed by a central black hole of 2.6 106 M⊙ or by stars and MACHOs distributed in the galactic bulge, disk and halo between Earth and the sources; ii) NSs in globular clusters lensed by a central black hole of ∼103 M⊙ or by stars and MACHOs distributed throughout the Galaxy. The detection of such kind of microlensing events will give a unique opportunity for the unambiguous mapping of the central region of the Galaxy and of globular clusters. In addition, the detection of such events will provide a new test of the General Theory of Relativity. Gravitational microlensing will, moreover, increase the challenge of detecting gravitational waves from NSs.