Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Box 351580, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
Science. 2014 Apr 18;344(6181):275-7. doi: 10.1126/science.1251999.
Over 40% of Sun-like stars are bound in binary or multistar systems. Stellar remnants in edge-on binary systems can gravitationally magnify their companions, as predicted 40 years ago. By using data from the Kepler spacecraft, we report the detection of such a "self-lensing" system, in which a 5-hour pulse of 0.1% amplitude occurs every orbital period. The white dwarf stellar remnant and its Sun-like companion orbit one another every 88.18 days, a long period for a white dwarf-eclipsing binary. By modeling the pulse as gravitational magnification (microlensing) along with Kepler's laws and stellar models, we constrain the mass of the white dwarf to be ~63% of the mass of our Sun. Further study of this system, and any others discovered like it, will help to constrain the physics of white dwarfs and binary star evolution.
超过 40%的类似太阳的恒星处于双星或多星系统中。40 年前就有人预测，在侧向双星系统中的恒星残骸可以通过引力放大它们的伴星。我们利用开普勒太空船的数据，报告了这种“自 lensing”系统的探测结果，其中每轨道周期都会发生一次 0.1%振幅的 5 小时脉冲。这个白矮星恒星残骸及其类似太阳的伴星每 88.18 天相互环绕一次，这对白矮星食双星来说是一个很长的周期。通过将脉冲建模为沿着开普勒定律和恒星模型的引力放大（微引力透镜），我们将白矮星的质量约束在约为我们太阳质量的 63%。对这个系统以及任何类似的系统的进一步研究，将有助于约束白矮星和双星演化的物理。
