Determining neutron star masses with weak microlensing

Abstract

The masses of stars including stellar remnants are almost exclusively known from binary systems. In this work, we study gravitational microlensing of faint background galaxies by isolated neutron stars (pulsars). We show that the resulting surface brightness distortions can be used to determine the masses of neutron star. Due to different evolutionary histories, isolated neutron stars may have different masses from those in binary systems, and thus provide unique insight into their equation of states under extreme physical conditions. We search for existing pulsar catalogs and find one promising pair of a nearby pulsar and a background galaxy. This method will become more practical for the next generation optical and radio surveys and telescopes.Comment: 3 figures and 4 tables, accepted for publication in MNRA