The MEGA Survey: Mapping Microlensing in M31

Details The MEGA Survey: Mapping Microlensing in M31 The MEGA Survey: Mapping Microlensing in M31

Aug 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002noao.prop..269c&link_type=abstract

NOAO Proposal ID #2002B-0269

Computer Science

Scientific paper

Microlensing surveys, while uncovering a wealth of new knowledge, have fallen short of their goal of determining what composes the Galactic dark matter halo, in part due to our location amidst the Galaxy and the few useful sightlines through the Halo. We propose overcoming these difficulties and addressing questions unsettled by Galactic surveys, using MOSAIC and a technique we invented (difference image photometry of variables) to expand our microlensing survey of M31. Our method of extracting light curves from highly crowded environments has isolated many microlensing events in our smaller M31 field. With MOSAIC's large field and the high lensing optical depth predicted, our proposed survey should record ~ 75-150 events per season. The spatial distribution of these events will indicate the shape of M31's microlensing halo and separate self-lensing by M31 disk and bulge stars from those due to M31's halo. Individual lens masses can be measured to within a factor of 2-3. Almost certainly, we can learn if microlensing objects are significant to the halo mass in M31. Meanwhile, ~ 60000 new variable stars will be detected during of our survey. Miras and cepheids are good tracers of population age in a part of M31 where color-magnitude diagrams are problematic; along with new eclipsing variables these will provide good distance measures.

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