0000000001331214
AUTHOR
E. Kerins
VISTA Milky Way Public Survey
We propose a public IR variability survey, named \Vista Variables in the Vía Láctea" (V V V ), of the Milky Way bulge and an adjacent section of the mid-plane where star formation activity is high. This would take 1920 hours, covering ~ 109 point sources within an area of 520 sq deg, including 33 known globular clusters and ~ 350 open clusters. The final products will be a deep IR atlas in 5 passbands and a catalogue of ~ 106 variable point sources. These will produce a 3-D map of the surveyed region (unlike single-epoch surveys that only give 2-D maps) using well-understood primary distance indicators such as RR Lyrae stars. It will yield important information on the ages of the population…
A giant planet beyond the snow line in microlensing event OGLE-2011-BLG-0251
We present the analysis of the gravitational microlensing event OGLE-2011-BLG-0251. This anomalous event was observed by several survey and follow-up collaborations conducting microlensing observations towards the Galactic Bulge. Based on detailed modelling of the observed light curve, we find that the lens is composed of two masses with a mass ratio q=1.9 x 10^-3. Thanks to our detection of higher-order effects on the light curve due to the Earth's orbital motion and the finite size of source, we are able to measure the mass and distance to the lens unambiguously. We find that the lens is made up of a planet of mass 0.53 +- 0.21,M_Jup orbiting an M dwarf host star with a mass of 0.26 +- 0.…
Characterizing Lenses and Lensed Stars of High-magnification Single-lens Gravitational Microlensing Events with Lenses Passing over Source Stars
We present the analysis of the light curves of 9 high-magnification single-lens gravitational microlensing events with lenses passing over source stars, including OGLE-2004-BLG-254, MOA-2007-BLG-176, MOA-2007-BLG-233/OGLE-2007-BLG-302, MOA-2009-BLG-174, MOA-2010-BLG-436, MOA-2011-BLG-093, MOA-2011-BLG-274, OGLE-2011-BLG-0990/MOA-2011-BLG-300, and OGLE-2011-BLG-1101/MOA-2011-BLG-325. For all events, we measure the linear limb-darkening coefficients of the surface brightness profile of source stars by measuring the deviation of the light curves near the peak affected by the finite-source effect. For 7 events, we measure the Einstein radii and the lens-source relative proper motions. Among the…
Microlensing Discovery of a Population of Very Tight, Very Low Mass Binary Brown Dwarfs
Although many models have been proposed, the physical mechanisms responsible for the formation of low-mass brown dwarfs (BDs) are poorly understood. The multiplicity properties and minimum mass of the BD mass function provide critical empirical diagnostics of these mechanisms. We present the discovery via gravitational microlensing of two very low mass, very tight binary systems. These binaries have directly and precisely measured total system masses of 0.025 M [SUB]⊙[/SUB] and 0.034 M [SUB]⊙[/SUB], and projected separations of 0.31 AU and 0.19 AU, making them the lowest-mass and tightest field BD binaries known. The discovery of a population of such binaries indicates that BD binaries can …