Related papers: Magellanic Cloud Gravitational Microlensing Result…
We present final results from the first phase of the EROS search for gravitational microlensing of stars in the Magellanic Clouds by unseen deflectors (machos: MAssive Compact Halo Objects). The search is sensitive to events with time…
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…
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…
I review proposals for explaining the current gravitational microlensing results from the EROS and MACHO surveys towards the Magellanic Clouds. Solutions involving massive compact halo objects (MACHOs), both baryonic and non-baryonic, as…
Five years of EROS data towards the Small Magellanic Cloud have been searched for gravitational microlensing events, using a new, more accurate method to assess the impact of stellar blending on the efficiency. Four long-duration candidates…
The initial results of microlensing surveys toward the Galactic bulge and the LMC are puzzling. Toward the LMC, the total mass in MACHOs is of order half that required to explain the dark matter, but the estimated MACHO mass (~0.4 Msun) is…
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…
The main aim of microlensing experiments is to evaluate the mean mass of massive compact halo objects (MACHOs) and the mass fraction of the Galactic halo made by this type of dark matter. Statistical analysis shows that by considering a…
Zhao has proposed that the microlensing events observed toward the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) could be due to faint stars in a dwarf galaxy or tidal debris lying along the line of sight to the LMC. Zaritsky & Lin claim to have detected…
An expression is provided for the self-lensing optical depth of the thin LMC disk surrounded by a shroud of stars at larger scale heights. The formula is written in terms of the vertical velocity dispersion of the thin disk population. If…
We report on our search for microlensing towards the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Analysis of 5.7 years of photometry on 11.9 million stars in the LMC reveals 13 - 17 microlensing events. This is significantly more than the $\sim$ 2 to 4…
Using eight dark matter haloes extracted from fully-self consistent cosmological N-body simulations, we perform microlensing experiments. A hypothetical observer is placed at a distance of 8.5 kpc from the centre of the halo measuring…
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…
We combine new results from the search for microlensing towards the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) by EROS2 (Experience de Recherche d'Objets Sombres) with limits previously reported by EROS1 and EROS2 towards both Magellanic Clouds. The…
We present the results of the EROS2 search for the hidden galactic matter of the halo through the gravitational microlensing of stars in the Magellanic clouds. Microlensing was also searched for and found in the Milky-Way plane, where…
We will review some results based on the EROS and the on going EROS-2 microlensing surveys to search for dark matter in the Galactic halo via microlensing effects on LMC/SMC stars. Microlensing surveys provide systematic observations for…
Increasing evidences suggest that the Galactic halo is lumpy on kpc scales due to the accretion of at least a dozen small galaxies (LMC/SMC, Sgr, Fornax etc.). Faint stars in such lumpy structures can significant microlense a background…
(Abridged) A close scrutiny of the microlensing results towards the Magellanic clouds reveals that the stars within the Magellanic clouds are major contributors as lenses, and the contribution of MACHOs to dark matter is 0 to 5%. The…
The MACHO Project monitors millions of stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud, the Small Magellanic Cloud and the bulge of the Milky Way searching for the gravitational microlensing signature of baryonic dark matter. This Project has yielded…
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…