How to find MACHOs in the Virgo Cluster
Astrophysics
2008-11-26 v1
Abstract
We discuss the feasibility of finding extra-galactic MACHOs by monitoring quasars behind the Virgo cluster of galaxies. We show that with only a modest observing programme one could detect several MACHOs in the mass range 1 X 10^{-5} to 2 X 10^{-2} solar masses if they make a significant contribution to the mass of Virgo. The contamination by events from cosmologically distributed MACHOs is estimated and is negligible if either the MACHO mass is greater than about 10^{-4} solar masses or the quasar radius is greater than about 3 X 10^{15} cm.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9806176,
title = {How to find MACHOs in the Virgo Cluster},
author = {Helen Tadros and Stephen Warren and Paul Hewett},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9806176},
year = {2008}
}
Comments
5 pages, 1 figure, to appear in New Astronomy