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In the next future, astrometric microlensing will offer a new channel for investigating the nature of both lenses and sources involved in a gravitational microlensing event. The effect, corresponding to the shift of the position of the multiple image centroid with respect to the source star location, is expected to occur on scales from micro-arcoseconds to milli-arcoseconds depending on the characteristics of the lens-source system. Here, we consider different classes of events (single/binary lens acting on a single/binary source) also accounting for additional effects including the finite source size, the blending and orbital motion. This is particularly important in the era of Gaia observations which are making possible astrometric measurements with unprecedented quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been suggested that there could be objects even more compact than neutron stars, like the so-called strange stars, P-stars, and magnetars. Strange stars are collapsed stars consisting of u, d, and s quarks. P-stars are a new class of compact stars made of u and d quarks in β-equilibrium with electrons in an Abelian chromomagnetic condensate. It has also been shown that a particle in a circular orbit around a stationary black hole is subject to a centrifugal force that turns out to be directed inwards if the particle orbit radius is between the Schwarzschild radius rs and 3rs/2. Here it is proposed that rotation of a sufficiently compact collapsed object may lead to a centrifugal force induced collapse to a black hole that could emit short gamma-ray bursts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The diffraction effects on gravitational waves propagating through a stellar cluster are analyzed in the relevant approximation of Fresnel diffraction limit. We find that a gravitational wave scintillation effect — similar to the radio source scintillation effect — comes out naturally, implying that the gravitational wave intensity changes in a characteristic way as the observer moves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]