Gravitational lensing by the supermassive black hole in the center of M31

Understand

We examine the possibility of observing gravitational lensing in the weak deflection regime by the supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy M31.

• This black hole is significantly more massive than the black hole in the center of our Galaxy qualifying itself as a more effective lens.
• However, it is also more distant and the candidate stellar sources appear consequently fainter.
• As potential sources we separately consider stars belonging to the bulge, to the disk, to the triple nucleus formed by P1+P2 and by the recently discovered inner cluster P3.