Related papers: Microlens Mass Functions
We study the accuracy of inference of the massive halo objects' (MHO or `Macho') mass function from microlensing events observed toward LMC. Assuming the spatial distribution and kinematics of the objects are known, the slope and the range…
All previous attempts to understand the microlensing results towards the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) have assumed homogeneous present day mass functions (PDMFs) for the lensing populations. Here, we present an investigation into the…
We present a new analysis of the results of the EROS-2, OGLE-II, and OGLE-III microlensing campaigns towards the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). Through a statistical analysis we address the issue of the \emph{nature} of the reported…
(Abridged version): The optical depth is widely used in Galactic microlensing studies as a means to determine the density of MACHOs, since in theory it depends only upon their spatial distribution and is therefore less model-dependent than…
Recent observations give some clues that the lenses discovered by the microlensing experiments in the direction of the Magellanic Clouds may be located in these satellite galaxies. We re-examine the possibility that self-lensing alone may…
We present an analysis of the longest timescale microlensing events discovered by the MACHO Collaboration during a 7 year survey of the Galactic bulge. We find 6 events that exhibit very strong microlensing parallax signals due, in part, to…
We present a simple toy model of the distribution of objects responsible for gravitational microlensing. We use Monte Carlo simulations to demonstrate how difficult it is to determine the parameters of the lens mass distribution on the…
Microlensing promises to be a powerful tool for studying distant galaxies and quasars. As the data and models improve, there are systematic effects that need to be explored. Quasar continuum and broad-line regions may respond differently to…
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 introduce a novel theoretical model to explain the long-standing puzzle of the nature of the microlensing events reported towards the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) by the MACHO and OGLE collaborations. We propose that a population of…
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…
The simplest interpretation of the microlensing events observed towards the Large Magellanic Cloud is that approximately half of the mass of the Milky Way halo is in the form of MAssive Compact Halo Objects with $M \sim 0.5 M_{\odot}$. This…
It has been proposed that the Galaxy might contain a population of cold clouds in numbers sufficient to account for a substantial fraction of the total mass of the Galaxy. These clouds would have masses of the order of 10^{-3} Solar mass…
Zaritsky & Lin have claimed detection of an intervening population of stars toward the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) which, they believe, could account for a substantial fraction of the observed microlensing events. I show that the observed…
We estimate the fraction of mass that is composed of compact objects in gravitational lens galaxies. This study is based on microlensing measurements (obtained from the literature) of a sample of 29 quasar image pairs seen through 20 lens…
We present the results from the OGLE-II survey (1996-2000) towards the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), which has the aim of detecting the microlensing phenomena caused by dark matter compact objects in the Galactic Halo (Machos). We use high…
Foundations of standard theory of microlensing are described, namely we consider microlensing stars in Galactic bulge, the Magellanic Clouds or other nearby galaxies. We suppose that gravitational microlenses lie between an Earth observer…
The MACHO collaboration has recently analyzed 2.1 years of photometric data for about 8.5 million stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). This analysis has revealed 8 candidate microlensing events and a total microlensing optical depth…
Gravitational microlensing is currently the only technique that helps study the Galactic distribution of planets as a function of distance from the Galactic center. The Galactic location of a lens system can be uniquely determined only when…
Microlensing observations have now become a useful tool in searching for non--luminous astrophysical compact objects (brown dwarfs, faint stars, neutron stars, black holes and even planets). Originally conceived for establishing whether the…