Related papers: Microlensing by the Milky Way Halo
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 $10^{-6} < M/M_{\odot} < 10^{-1}$.…
Microlensing searches aim to detect compact halo dark matter via its gravitational lensing effect on stars within the Large Magellanic Cloud. The most recent results have led to the claim that roughly one fifth of the galactic halo dark…
Microlensing has established itself as a powerful new method for the detection of baryonic dark matter in the Galaxy. The theory of microlensing is sketched and its similarity with the optical effect of twinkling is explained. The bulk of…
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…
The simplest interpretation of the microlensing events observed towards the Large Magellanic Clouds is that approximately half of the mass of the Milky Way halo is in the form of MAssive Compact Halo Objects with $M \sim 0.5 M_{\odot}$. It…
The simplest interpretation of the microlensing events towards the Large Magellanic Cloud detected by the MACHO and EROS collaborations is that about one third of the halo of our own Milky Way galaxy exists in the form of objects of around…
The French collaboration EROS and the American-Australian collaboration MACHO have reported the observation of altogether $\sim$ 10 microlensing events by monitoring during several years the brightness of millions of stars in the Large…
Recently the French EROS collaboration and the American-Australian MACHO collaboration have reported the observation of altogether three possible microlensing events by monitoring over several years the brightness of millions of stars in…
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 $10^{-6}<M/M_\odot<10^{-1}$.…
The MACHO project has been monitoring about ten million stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud in the search for gravitational microlensing events caused by massive compact halo objects (Machos) in the halo of the Milky Way. In our standard…
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…
The most accurate way to get information on the mass of the MACHOs (Massive Astrophysical Compact Halo Objects) is to use the method of mass moments. For the microlensing events detected so far by the EROS and the MACHO collaborations in…
MAssive Compact Halo Objects such as brown dwarfs, Jupiters, and black holes are prime candidates to comprise the dark halo of our galaxy. Paczynski noted that objects (dubbed MACHOs) with masses in the range $10^{-6}M_\odot < M \simlt 100…
Paczy\'nski (1986) suggested that ``dark" objects in the halo of our Galaxy could enhance the luminosity of foreground stars, acting as gravitational microlenses. Such events has been recently reported by different collaborations. We assume…
There is now abundant evidence for the presence of large quantities of unseen matter surrounding normal galaxies, including our own$^{1,2}$. The nature of this `dark matter' is unknown, except that it cannot be made of normal stars, dust,…
The MACHO project is searching for dark matter in the form of massive compact halo objects (Machos), by monitoring the brightness of millions of stars in the Magellanic Clouds to search for gravitational microlensing events. Analysis of our…
Recently the Polish-American collaboration OGLE has reported the observation of four possible microlensing events by monitoring, over several months, the brightness of millions of stars in the region of the galactic bulge. If these events…
The primary goal of this paper is to provide the evidence that can either prove or falsify the hypothesis that dark matter in the Galactic halo can clump into stellar-mass compact objects. If such objects existed, they would act as lenses…
Disk-halo models of the Galaxy and LMC are constructed and used to analyse the microlensing data-set. Deflectors in the LMC bar, disk and halo provide an optical depth to microlensing of $\sim 2 \times 10^{-7}$. Deflectors in the Galactic…
Black hole-like objects with mass greater than $10 M_{\odot}$, as discovered by gravitational antennas, can produce long time-scale (several years) gravitational microlensing effects. Considered separately, previous microlensing surveys…