Related papers: Microlensing search towards M31
Utilizing high-cadence and continuous g- and r-band data over three nights acquired from the 3.6-meter Canada France Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) aimed to find short-duration microlensing events, we conduct a systematic search for variables,…
We present a comprehensive treatment of the pixel-lensing theory and apply it to lensing experiments and their results toward M31. Using distribution functions for the distances, velocities, masses, and luminosities of stars, we derive…
We provide a status report on our search for dark matter in our Galaxy in the form of massive compact halo objects (MACHOs), using gravitational microlensing of background stars. This search uses a very large CCD camera on the dedicated…
The POINT-AGAPE collaboration is currently searching for massive compact halo objects (MACHOs) towards the Andromeda galaxy (M31). The survey aims to exploit the high inclination of the M31 disk, which causes an asymmetry in the spatial…
AGAPE is an observational search of massive compact halo objects (MACHOs) in the direction of M31 by means of a novel method: the gravitational microlensing of unresolved stars. The search consists in examining CCD pixel light curves for…
One of the most important problems in astrophysics concerns the nature of the dark matter in galactic halos, whose presence is implied mainly by the observed flat rotation curves in spiral galaxies. In the framework of a baryonic scenario…
Microlensing surveys search for the transient brightening of a background star that is the signature of gravitational lensing by a foreground compact object. This technique is an elegant way to search for astrophysical candidates that might…
In this article we review the astrophysical application of gravitational microlensing. After introducing the history of gravitational lensing, we present the key equations and concept of microlensing. The most frequent microlensing events…
We discuss pixel lensing observations towards M31 carried out at the Loiano telescope. We have established a fully automatic pipeline for the detection and the characterization of microlensing events. We have evaluated the efficiency of the…
We provide a status report on our search for dark matter in our Galaxy in the form of massive compact halo objects (or Machos), using gravitational microlensing of background stars. This search uses a very large format CCD camera on the…
We perform an analytical study and a Monte Carlo (MC) analysis of the main features for microlensing events in pixel lensing observations towards M31. Our main aim is to investigate the lens nature and location of the 14 candidate events…
Since the first discovery of microlensing events nearly two decades ago, gravitational microlensing has accumulated tens of TBytes of data and developed into a powerful astrophysical technique with diverse applications. The review starts…
Primordial black holes (PBHs) have long been suggested as a viable candidate for the elusive dark matter (DM). The abundance of such PBHs has been constrained using a number of astrophysical observations, except for a hitherto unexplored…
For the past five seasons, the Angstrom Project, an international microlensing collaboration, has been making observations of the central bulge of M31, the Andromeda galaxy, searching for microlensing events. This thesis describes the work…
If dark matter is made of neutralinos, annihilation of such Majorana particles should produce high energy cosmic rays, especially in galaxy halo high density regions like galaxy centres. M31 (Andromeda) is our nearest neighbour spiral…
We investigate $HST$/ACS and WFPC2 images at the positions of five candidate microlensing events from a large survey of variability in M31 (MEGA). Three closely match unresolved sources, and two produce only flux upper limits. All are…
There is abundant evidence that the mass of the Universe is dominated by dark matter of unknown form. The MACHO project is one of several teams searching for the dark matter around our Galaxy in the form of Massive Compact Halo Objects…
Microlensing started with the seminal paper by Paczy\'nski in 1986, first with observations towards the Large Magellanic Cloud and the galactic bulge. Since then many other targets have been observed and new applications have been found. In…
The lightcurve of PA-99-N2, one of the recently announced microlensing candidates towards M31, shows small deviations from the standard Paczynski form. We explore a number of possible explanations, including correlations with the seeing,…
By means of extensive galactic modeling we study the implications of the more than eighty microlensing events that have now been observed for the composition of the dark halo of the Galaxy, as well as for other properties of the Galaxy. We…