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The only way to detect black holes is through their influence on their surroundings. Black holes can be detected when their extreme gravity effects nearby luminous gas and stars. They can also be detected from the gravitational waves generated when two black holes merge. Both of these methods require that the black hole is in close proximity to other objects - gas, stars, or another black hole in a binary system. None of these methods can be used to find free-floating, isolated black holes. Luckily, general relativity gives us another way that these dark objects can be detected.
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Finding Black Holes with Gravitational Lensing
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Members: Michael Medford, Jessica Lu,
Collaborators: Will Dawson (LLNL)
Gravitational Microlensing Event Statistics for the Zwicky Transient Facility (Medford et al. 2020)
128 Microlensing Events from the Three Years of Zwicky Transient Facility Phase One (Medford et al., submitted)
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