Related papers: Is Galactic Structure Compatible with Microlensing…
Observations consistently show that elliptical galaxies follow a tight "fundamental plane" scaling relation between size, mean surface brightness and velocity dispersion, with the form $R \propto \sigma^{a}\mu^{b}$. This relation not only…
Ground-based optical microlensing surveys have provided tantalising, if inconclusive, evidence for a significant population of free-floating planets (FFPs). Both ground and space-based facilities are being used and developed which will be…
Standard cosmology has many successes on large scales, but faces some fundamental difficulties on small, galactic scales. One such difficulty is the cusp/core problem. High resolution observations of the rotation curves for dark matter…
Microlensing of extragalactic sources, in particular the probability of significant amplifications, is a potentially powerful probe of the abundance of compact objects outside the halo of the Milky Way. Accurate experimental constraints…
We analyze the data of the gravitational microlensing survey carried out by by the MOA group during 2000 towards the Galactic Bulge (GB). Our observations are designed to detect efficiently high magnification events with faint source stars…
We present a potential test of the origin of the $\gamma$-ray Galactic Centre Excess (GCE). We demonstrate how gravitational microlensing by stellar mass objects along the line of sight to the Galactic Bulge can distinguish between the…
We describe a new method to search for gravitational microlensing toward the Galactic bulge that employs a small camera rather than a conventional telescope and probes new regions of parameter space. The small aperture (~65 mm) permits…
We present the PLANET photometric dataset for the binary-lens microlensing event MACHO 97-BLG-28 consisting of 696 I and V-band measurements, and analyze it to determine the radial surface brightness profile of the Galactic bulge source…
We review recent research on the Milky Way galaxy and try to investigate whether its shape is similar to other barred galaxies. The emphasis is given on microlensing research because this method can be useful in determining the shape of the…
We study the correlation between the locations of galaxy-galaxy strong lensing candidates and tracers of large-scale structure from both weak lensing or X-ray emission. The COSMOS survey is a unique data set, combining deep, high resolution…
Weak lensing is the distortion (polarization) of images of distant objects, such as high redshift galaxies, by gravitational fields in the limit where the distortion is small. Gravitational potential fluctuations due to large scale…
Recently Sahu et al., using the Hubble Space Telescope to monitor stars in the direction of the old globular cluster M22, detected six events in which otherwise constant stars brightened by ~50% during a time of <1 day. They tentatively…
We model the split red clump of the Galactic bulge in OGLE-III photometry, and compare the results to predictions from two N-body models. Our analysis yields precise maps of the brightness of the two red clumps, the fraction of stars in the…
Analyzing high-resolution longitude-velocity (LV) diagrams of the Galactic Center observed with the Nobeyama 45-m telescope in the CO and CS line emissions, we obtain a central rotation curve of the Milky Way. We combine it with the data…
Understanding our Galactic Center is easier with insights from nearby galactic nuclei. Both the star formation activity in nuclear gas disks, driven by bars and nuclear bars, and the fueling of low-luminosity AGN, followed by feedback of…
We find that significant incompleteness in stellar number counts results in a significant overestimate of the microlensing optical depth $\tau$ and event rate per star per year $\Gamma$ toward the Galactic bulge from the first two years of…
Four microlensing collaborations are presently searching for compact matter in the Galaxy and all have detected possible candidates. Using the detection efficiencies recently published by the MACHO and OGLE collaborations, we present…
We present data for a sample of 45 spiral galaxies over a range of Hubble types, imaged in the near-IR J and K bands. Parameters are calculated describing the bulge, disk and bar K-band light distributions, and we look for correlations…
Cosmic superstring loops within the galaxy microlens background point sources lying close to the observer-string line of sight. For suitable alignments, multiple paths coexist and the (achromatic) flux enhancement is a factor of two. We…
Like the majority of spiral galaxies, the Milky Way contains a central non-axisymmetric bar component. Our position in the Galactic plane renders it rather hard to see, but also allows us to make measurements of the bar that are completely…