Gravitational microlensing of gamma-ray blazars

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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).
Original languageEnglish
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume399
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)335-352
Number of pages17
ISSN0035-8711
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 12 Feb 2003

    Research areas

  • astro-ph, gr-qc

ID: 34382970