English

Six binary brown dwarf candidates identified by microlensing

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 2025-10-29 v1

Abstract

In this study, we analyze microlensing events from the 2023 and 2024 observing seasons to identify cases likely caused by binary systems composed of BDs. By applying criteria that the binary-lens events exhibit well-resolved caustics, short time scales (tE9t_{\rm E} \lesssim 9 days), and have small angular Einstein radii (θE0.17\theta_{\rm E} \lesssim 0.17~mas), we identify six candidate binary BD events: MOA-2023-BLG-331, KMT-2023-BLG-2019, KMT-2024-BLG-1005, KMT-2024-BLG-1518, MOA-2024-BLG-181, and KMT-2024-BLG-2486. Analysis of these events leads to models that provide precise estimates for both lensing observables, tEt_{\rm E} and θE\theta_{\rm E}. We estimate the masses of the binary components through Bayesian analysis, utilizing the constraints from tEt_{\rm E} and θE\theta_{\rm E}. The results show that for the events KMT-2024-BLG-1005, KMT-2024-BLG-1518, MOA-2024-BLG-181, and KMT-2024-BLG-2486, the probability that both binary components lie within the BD mass range exceeds 50\%, indicating a high likelihood that the lenses of these events are binary BDs. In contrast, for MOA-2023-BLG-331L and KMT-2023-BLG-2019L, the probabilities that the lower-mass components of the binary lenses lie within the BD mass range exceed 50\%, while the probabilities for the heavier components are below 50\%, suggesting that these systems are more likely to consist of a low-mass M dwarf and a BD. The brown-dwarf nature of the binary candidates can ultimately be confirmed by combining the measured lens-source relative proper motions with high-resolution imaging taken at a later time.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2510.23933,
  title  = {Six binary brown dwarf candidates identified by microlensing},
  author = {Cheongho Han and Chung-Uk Lee and Ian A. Bond and Andrzej Udalski and Michael D. Albrow and Sun-Ju Chung and Andrew Gould and Youn Kil Jung and Kyu-Ha Hwang and Yoon-Hyun Ryu and Yossi Shvartzvald and In-Gu Shin and Jennifer C. Yee and Weicheng Zang and Hongjing Yang and Sang-Mok Cha and Doeon Kim and Dong-Jin Kim and Seung-Lee Kim and Dong-Joo Lee and Yongseok Lee and Byeong-Gon Park and Richard W. Pogge and Przemek Mróz and Michał K. Szymański and Jan Skowron and Radosław Poleski and Igor Soszyński and Paweł Pietrukowicz and Szymon Kozłowski and Krzysztof A. Rybicki and Patryk Iwanek and Krzysztof Ulaczyk and Marcin Wrona and Mariusz Gromadzki and Mateusz J. Mróz Michał Jaroszyński and Marcin Kiraga and Fumio Abe and David P. Bennett and Aparna Bhattacharya and Akihiko Fukui and Ryusei Hamada and Stela Ishitani Silva and Yuki Hirao and Asahi Idei and Shota Miyazaki and Yasushi Muraki and Tutumi Nagai and Kansuke Nunota and Greg Olmschenk and Clément Ranc and Nicholas J. Rattenbury and Yuki Satoh and Takahiro Sumi and Daisuke Suzuki and Takuto Tamaoki and Sean K. Terry and Paul J. Tristram and Aikaterini Vandorou and Hibiki Yama},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.23933},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

11 pages, 9 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T07:08:45.072Z