5–9 Jul 2026
University of Canterbury
Pacific/Auckland timezone

Efficiency of current gravitational wave microlensing searches using isolated compact object lenses

6 Jul 2026, 14:50
20m
Room E7 (Rātā / Engineering Core Building, University of Canterbury)

Room E7

Rātā / Engineering Core Building, University of Canterbury

63 Creyke Road, Ilam, Christchurch 8041, New Zealand
Parallel Session Talk Parallel sessions

Speaker

Uddeepta Deka

Description

Current searches for microlensing signatures in the detected gravitational wave (GW) events assume an isolated point mass lens (PML) model. However, the assumption of the lenses being isolated is overly simplistic, as these lenses are typically embedded within more complex structures, such as galaxies. In this paper, we extend the current lens model to incorporate external influences that better reflect the environment in which these lenses reside. Specifically, we consider microlenses perturbed by singular isothermal sphere (SIS) galaxy potentials. We find that neglecting host galaxy effects may lead to reduced sensitivity in microlensing searches.

Research Area Gravitational waves: black holes

Author

Uddeepta Deka

Co-authors

Apratim Ganguly (IUCAA) P Ajith Soham Bhattacharyya (IIT Madras)

Presentation materials