Determining neutron star masses with weak microlensing
  The masses of stars including stellar remnants are almost exclusively known
from binary systems. In this work, we study gravitational microlensing of faint
background galaxies by isolated neutron stars (pulsars). We show that the
resulting surface brightness distortions can be used to determine the masses of
neutron star. Due to different evolutionary histories, isolated neutron stars
may have different masses from those in binary systems, and thus provide unique
insight into their equation of states under extreme physical conditions. We
search for existing pulsar catalogs and find one promising pair of a nearby
pulsar and a background galaxy. This method will become more practical for the
next generation optical and radio surveys and telescopes.
