Related papers: The microlensing rate and mass function vs. dynami…
We investigate the dependence of occurrence of bars in galaxies on galaxy properties and environment. We use a volume-limited sample of 33,391 galaxies brighter than $M_{r}=-19.5+5$log$h$ at $0.02\le z\le0.05489$, drawn from the SDSS DR 7.…
Both the three-dimensional density of red clump giants and the gas kinematics in the inner Galaxy indicate that the pattern speed of the Galactic bar could be much lower than previously estimated. Here, we show that such slow bar models are…
We study dynamics of bars in models of disk galaxies embeded in realistic dark matter halos. We find that disk thickness plays an important, if not dominant, role in the evolution and structure of the bars. We also make extensive numerical…
The probability of detecting a planetary companion of a lensing star during a microlensing event toward the Galactic center, averaged over all relevant event and galactic parameters, when the planet-star mass ratio $q=0.001$ has a maximum…
We investigate the evolution of two bars formed in fully self-consistent hydrodynamic simulations of the formation of Milky Way-mass galaxies. One galaxy shows higher central mass concentration and has a longer and stronger bar than the…
I review some of the work on bars which is closely linked to the bar/bulge system in our Galaxy. Several independent studies, using totally independent methods, come to the same results about the 3D structure of a bar, i.e., that a bar is…
(abridged) By comparing the distribution of dust and gas in the central regions of the Galaxy, we aim to obtain new insights into the properties of the offset dust lanes leading the bar's major axis in the Milky Way. On the one hand, the…
We present analysis of MACHO Alert 95-30, a dramatic gravitational microlensing event towards the Galactic bulge whose peak magnification departs significantly from the standard point-source microlensing model. Alert 95-30 was observed in…
Forthcoming projects such as the DES, a JDEM, and LSST, aim to measure weak lensing shear correlations with unprecedented accuracy. Weak lensing observables are sensitive to both the distance-redshift relation and the growth of structure in…
Although point caustics harbour a larger potential for measuring the brightness profile of stars during the course of a microlensing event than (line-shaped) fold caustics, the effect of lens binarity significantly limits the achievable…
Gravitational microlensing, when finite size source effects are relevant, provides an unique tool for the study of source star stellar atmospheres through an enhancement of a characteristic polarization signal. This is due to the…
We explore the distribution of mass about the expected sites of galaxy formation in a high-resolution hydrodynamical simulation of a LCDM cosmology which includes cooling, star-formation and feedback. We show that the evolution of the…
Astrometric observations of microlensing events can be used to obtain important information about lenses. During these events, the shift of the position of the multiple image centroid with respect to the source star location can be…
The magnification induced by gravitational microlensing is sensitive to the size of a source relative to the Einstein radius, the natural microlensing scale length. This paper investigates the effect of source size in the case where the…
The dense concentration of stars and high velocity dispersions in the Galactic centre imply that stellar collisions frequently occur. Stellar collisions could therefore result in significant mass loss rates. We calculate the amount of…
More than two thirds of disk galaxies are barred to some degree. Many today harbor massive concentrations of gas in their centers, and some are known to possess supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and their associated stellar cusps. Previous…
We present a potential test of the origin of the $\gamma$-ray Galactic Centre Excess (GCE). We demonstrate how gravitational microlensing by stellar mass objects along the line of sight to the Galactic Bulge can distinguish between the…
We explore the usefulness of future gravitational microlensing surveys in the study of binary properties such as the binary fraction and the distributions of binary separation and mass ratio by using the binary sample detectable through a…
We present the analysis of planetary microlensing event MOA-2011-BLG-291, which has a mass ratio of $q=(3.8\pm0.7)\times10^{-4}$ and a source star that is redder (or brighter) than the bulge main sequence. This event is located at a low…
Our Galaxy is known to contain a central boxy/peanut-shaped bulge, yet the importance of a classical, pressure-supported component within the central part of the Milky Way is still being debated. It should be most visible at low…