Related papers: Microlensing Maps for the Milky Way Galaxy
The microlensing probability (optical depth $\tau$) toward the Galactic center carries information about the mass distribution of the Galactic bulge/bar, so can be used to constrain the very uncertain shape parameters of the bar. We find…
All current Bulge-Disk models for the inner Galaxy fall short of reproducing self-consistently the observed micro-lensing optical depth by a factor of two ($> 2\sigma$). We show that the least mass-consuming way to increase the optical…
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…
Microlensing has a unique advantage for detecting dark objects in the Milky Way, such as free-floating planets, neutron stars, and stellar-mass black holes. Most microlensing surveys focus on the Galactic bulge, where higher stellar density…
This paper presents an investigation into the gravitational microlensing of quasars by stars and stellar remnants in the Milky Way. We present predictions for the all-sky microlensing optical depth, time-scale distributions and event rates…
We investigate the possibilities that pulsars act as the lens in gravitational microlensing events towards the galactic bulge or a spiral arm. Our estimation is based on expectant survey and observations of FAST (Five hundred meter Aperture…
During the months when the galactic bulge is visible from the southern hemisphere, there are typically about 8 to 10 on-going microlensing events at any given time. If the lensing stars have planets around them, then the signature of the…
The spatial distribution of compact dark matter in our Galaxy can be determined in a few years of monitoring Galactic globular clusters for microlensing. Globular clusters are the only dense fields of stars distributed throughout the…
Measurements of the microlensing optical depth and event rate toward the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) can be used to probe the distribution and mass function of compact objects in the direction toward that galaxy - in the Milky Way disk,…
Evidence from a variety of sources points towards the existence of a bar in the central few kpc of the Galaxy. The measurements roughly agree on the direction of the bar major axis, but other parameters (axis ratio, size, pattern speed) are…
More reliable constraints on the microlensing optical depth comes from a better understanding of the Galactic model. Based on well-constrained Galactic bulge and disk models constructed from survey observations, such as, HST, 2MASS, and…
The longest microlensing events provide enough information to estimate the mass and distance of the lens. Among hundreds of millions of stars which were monitored for many years by the OGLE project we selected those with clear parallax…
The measurements of the possible gravitational microlensing events are analysed with a simple yet accurate disc--halo model of the Milky Way Galaxy. This comprises a luminous exponential disc embedded in a flattened dark matter halo with…
Following the suggestion of Gould and Depoy (1998) we investigate the feasibility of studying the brightest microlensing events towards the Galactic bulge using a small aperture (~10 cm) telescope. We used one of the HAT telescopes to…
We present the microlensing optical depth towards the Galactic bulge based on the detection of 99 events found in our Difference Image Analysis (DIA) survey. This analysis encompasses three years of data, covering ~ 17 million stars in ~ 4…
We show that the statistical error, $\sigma_{\tau}$, in estimating the optical depth, $\tau$, due to microlensing is substantially higher than the naive Poisson estimate: $\sigma_{\tau} = \sqrt{\eta / N} \tau$, where $N$ is the number of…
A new model for the luminosity distribution in the inner Milky Way is found, using a non-parametric penalized maximum-likelihood algorithm to deproject a dereddened COBE/DIRBE L-band map of the inner Galaxy. The model is also constrained by…
Microlensing provides a unique tool to break the stellar to dark matter degeneracy in the inner Milky Way. We combine N-body dynamical models fitted to the Milky Way's Boxy/Peanut bulge with exponential disk models outside this, and compute…
We present measurements of the microlensing optical depth and event rate toward the Galactic Bulge based on two years of the MOA-II survey. This sample contains ~1000 microlensing events, with an Einstein Radius crossing time of t_E < 200…
We present the Catalog of microlensing events detected toward the Galactic bulge in three observing seasons, 1997--1999, during the OGLE-II microlensing survey. The search for microlensing events was performed using a database of about…