Related papers: Microlensing in M31; Preliminary lightcurves from …
The Pan-STARRS 1 (PS1) survey of M31 (PAndromeda) is designed to identify gravitational microlensing events, caused by bulge and disk stars (self-lensing) and by compact matter in the halos of M31 and the Milky Way (halo lensing, or lensing…
Observations by the MACHO collaboration suggest that a significant proportion of the galactic halo dark matter is in the form of compact objects with typical masses $M\sim 0.5M_{\odot}$. One of the current mysteries is the nature and origin…
Results are presented from the MACHO collaboration gravitational microlensing search. The experiment and the nearly 50 microlensing events that have been detected are described. Limits on the baryonic content of the halo are given, as are…
We present results from a search for gravitational microlensing of stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud by low mass objects in the Galactic Halo. The search uses the CCD light curves of about 82,000 stars with up to 46 measurements per night…
We examine the possibility that galactic halos are collisionless ensembles of scalar field ``massive compact halo objects'' (MACHOs). Using mass constraints from MACHO microlensing and from theoretical arguments on halos made up of massive…
It has been shown by Paczy\'nski that gravitational microlensing is potentially a useful method for detecting the dark constituents of the halo of our galaxy, if their mass lies in the approximate domain $10^{-6} < M/M_{\odot} < 10^{-1}$.…
If the dark halo matter is primarily composed of MACHOs toward the lower end of the possible detection range ($ < 10^{-3}$ $M_{\odot}$) a fraction of the lens detection events should involve the lens crossing directly in front of the disk…
If the halo of the lensing galaxy 0957+561 is made of massive compact objects (MACHOs), they must affect the lightcurves of the quasar images Q0957+561 A and B differently. We search for this microlensing effect in the double quasar by…
The nature of the Massive Compact Halo objects seen in microlensing experiments and interpreted as dark matter in the Halo of our Galaxy remains a mystery. Arguments are presented that these events are probably not ordinary stellar or…
The recently reported microlensing events of the LMC have caused much excitement, and have been interpreted as due to `dark objects' (MACHOs) in the halo of our Galaxy. It is shown here that the stars within the LMC play a dominant role as…
A straightforward interpretation of the MACHO microlensing results in the direction of the Magellanic Clouds suggests that an important fraction of the baryonic dark matter component of our Galaxy is in the form of old white dwarfs. If…
Microlensing results towards the LMC strongly depend on the properties of both the luminous and the dark matter distribution in the Galaxy. The two main sources of uncertainty come from the poor knowledge of the rotation curve at large…
If compact baryonic objects contribute significantly to the dark matter in our Galaxy, their mass function will present vital clues for galaxy formation theories and star formation processes in the early Universe. Here we discuss what one…
The existence of a population of wandering Intermediate Mass Black Holes (IMBHs) is a generic prediction of scenarios that seek to explain the formation of Supermassive Black Holes in terms of growth from massive seeds. The growth of IMBHs…
The nature and the location of the lenses discovered in the microlensing surveys done so far towards the LMC remain unclear. Motivated by these questions we computed the optical depth for the different intervening populations and the number…
One of the biggest obstacles to our full understanding of the global dynamics in Milky Way and other spiral galaxies is uncertainty with respect to the form of baryonic dark matter in galactic haloes. Two basic forms discussed recently are…
We have monitored 8.6 million stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud for 1.1 years and have found 3 events consistent with gravitational microlensing. We place strong constraints on the Galactic halo content in the form of compact lensing…
In the third part of the series presenting the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) microlensing studies of the dark matter halo compact objects (MACHOs) we describe results of the OGLE-III monitoring of the Large Magellanic…
It has been revealed using microlensing that a considerable part, possibly more than half, of the dark matter in the halo of our Galaxy consists of objects with a mass spectrum ranging from 0.05 to 0.8 of the solar mass. What is the nature…
The microlensing surveys MACHO, EROS, MOA and OGLE (hereafter called MEMO) have searched for microlensing toward the Large Magellanic Cloud for a cumulated duration of 27 years. We study the potential of joining these databases to search…