Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
1996-04-29
Astrophys.J. 471 (1996) 774
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Submitted to ApJ, 4/28/96
Scientific paper
10.1086/178005
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 analysis, we have searched this data set for well sampled, long duration microlensing lightcurves, detected several microlensing events consistent with Machos in the 0.1 < m < 1.0 M_sun mass range, and set limits on the abundance of objects with masses 1e-5 < m < 0.1 M_sun. In this paper, we present a different type of analysis involving the search for very short time scale brightenings of stars which is used to set strong limits on the abundance of lower mass Machos. Our analysis of the first two years of data toward the LMC indicates that Machos with masses in the range 2.5e-7 < m < 5.2e-4 M_sun cannot make up the entire mass of a standard spherical dark halo. Combining these results with those from the standard analysis, we find that the halo dark matter may not be comprised of objects with masses 2.5e-7 < m < 8.1e-2 M_sun.
Alcock Charles
Allsman R. A.
Alves Daniele
Axelrod Tim S.
Becker Andrew
No associations
LandOfFree
The MACHO Project: Limits on Planetary Mass Dark Matter in the Galactic Halo from Gravitational Microlensing does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with The MACHO Project: Limits on Planetary Mass Dark Matter in the Galactic Halo from Gravitational Microlensing, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The MACHO Project: Limits on Planetary Mass Dark Matter in the Galactic Halo from Gravitational Microlensing will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-501737