On a systematic bias in SBF-based distances due to gravitational microlensing

Artem V. Tuntsov, Geraint F. Lewis

Published 2006-06-29Version 1

The effect of gravitational microlensing on the determination of extragalactic distances using surface brightness fluctuations (SBF) technique is considered and a method to calculate SBF amplitudes in presence of microlensing is presented. With a simple approximation for the magnification power spectrum at low optical depth the correction to the SBF-based luminosity distance is calculated. The results suggest the effect can be safely neglected at present but may become important for SBF-based Hubble diagrams at luminosity distances of about 1 Gpc and beyond.