Related papers: VVV Survey Microlensing: the Galactic Longitude De…

The Vista Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) ESO Public Survey consists in a near-infrared time-series survey of the Galactic bulge and inner disk, covering 562 square degrees of the sky, over a total timespan of more than 5 years. In this…

The detection of old neutron stars and black holes in isolation is one of the cornerstones of compact object astrophysics. Microlensing surveys may help on this purpose since the lensing mechanism is independent of the emission properties…

I demonstrate that one can detect pixel gravitational microlensing events at the rate $\sim 180\ {\rm events}\ {\rm yr}^{-1}$ and that some fraction of events ($\sim 15$) will be good enough to measure time scales at the $20\%$ level if the…

I demonstrate that the two unexpected results in the local Universe: 1) anomalous intrinsic (V-I)_0 colors of the clump giants and RR Lyrae stars in the Galactic center, and 2) very short distances to the Magellanic Clouds (LMC, SMC) as…

Gravitational microlensing, when finite size source effects are relevant, provides an unique tool for the study of source star stellar atmospheres through an enhancement of a characteristic polarization signal. This is due to the…

Studying giant star-forming clumps in distant galaxies is important to understand galaxy formation and evolution. At present, however, observers and theorists have not reached a consensus on whether the observed "clumps" in distant galaxies…

This study's objective was to exploit infrared VVV (VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea) photometry for high latitude RRab stars to establish an accurate Galactic Centre distance. RRab candidates were discovered and reaffirmed ($n=4194$) by…

A view of the Galactic bulge by means of their globular clusters is necessary for a deep understanding of its formation and evolution. Connections between the globular cluster and field star properties in terms of kinematics, orbits,…

It has recently been suggested that the stars in a vertical extension of the red clump feature seen in LMC color-magnitude diagrams could belong to a tidal stream of material located in front of that galaxy. If this claim is correct, this…

We describe a real-time spectroscopic program to observe bright gravitational microlensing events toward the Galactic Bulge. The program is carried out using the NTT at ESO. We present the preliminary analysis of the microlensing events we…

We present results from a near/mid IR search for submillimetre galaxies over a region of 6230 sq deg. of the southern sky. We used a cross-correlation of the VISTA Hemispheric Survey (VHS) and the WISE database to identify bright galaxies…

An LSST-like survey of the Galactic plane (deep images every 3-4 days) could probe the Galactic distribution of planets by two distinct methods: gravitational microlensing of planets beyond the snow line and transits by planets very close…

Upcoming LSST survey gives an unprecedented opportunity for studying populations of intrinsically faint objects using microlensing technique. Large field of view and aperture allow effective time-series observations of many stars in…

(Abridged) We report a discovery of possible large-scale structures around the RDCS J1252.9-2927 cluster at z=1.24 based on photometric redshifts. We carried out multi-band wide-field imaging with Suprime-Cam on the Subaru Telescope and…

Extrapolation of the astrometric motion of the nearby low-mass star VB 10 indicates that sometime in late December 2011 or during the first 2-3 months of 2012, the star will make a close approach to a background point source. Based on…

We present the results of a study investigating the rest-frame ultra-violet (UV) spectral slopes of redshift z~5 Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs). By combining deep Hubble Space Telescope imaging of the CANDELS and HUDF fields with ground-based…

Long-period variable stars (LPVs) are pulsating red giants, primarily in the asymptotic giant branch phase, and they include both Miras and semi-regular variables (SRVs). Their period-age and period-luminosity relations enable us to trace…

We determine the microlensing event rate distribution, $\Gamma(t_{E})$, that is properly normalized by the first year MACHO group observations (Alcock et al. 1997). By comparing the determined $\Gamma(t_{E})$ with various MF models of lens…

(Abridged) We analyze the UBVI color-magnitude diagrams towards the Galactic bulge in a relatively low-reddening region of Baade's Window. The dereddened red giant branch is very wide [~1.0 mag in (U-B)_0 and ~0.4 mag in (B-V)_0 and…

Vista Variables in The Via Lactea (VVV) is an ESO variability survey that is performing observations in near infrared bands (ZYJHKs) towards the Galactic bulge and part of the disk with the completeness limits at least 3 mag deeper than…