Other
Scientific paper
Aug 1999
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1999noao.prop..244c&link_type=abstract
NOAO Proposal ID #1999B-0244
Other
Scientific paper
Microlensing surveys, while revealing a wealth of new knowledge, have missed their goal of determining what composes the Galactic dark matter halo, in part due to our location and the paucity of useful sightlines through the Galaxy. We propose to bypass these difficulties and address questions unsettled by Galactic surveys, using MOSAIC and a technique we invented (difference image photometry or ``pixel lensing'') to extend microlensing surveys to M31. The viability of our technique in extracting light curves of variables from extremely crowded environments was demonstrated by several microlensing events we discovered during our smaller M31 survey. With MOSAIC's large field and the high lensing optical depth predicted, our proposed survey should record ~ 50-100 events per season. The spatial distribution of these events will provide a powerful diagnostic of the shape of the microlensing halo of M31, as well as separating self-lensing by M31 disk and bulge stars from those due to M31's halo. Masses of individual lenses should be constrained to within a factor of 2-3. Almost certainly, we would establish whether microlensing objects are significant to the halo mass in M31. In addition, tens of thousands of new variable stars in M31 will be detected in the course of our survey. The miras and cepheids are useful tracers of population age in a part of M31 where color-magnitude diagrams are problematic; along with eclipsing variables these variables will make good distance measures. We will also extract from these fields crucial red variable targets for a SIM study of M31 proper motion and distance, complementary to another proposal being submitted.
Crotts Arlin
Gyuk Geza
Tomaney Austin
Uglesich Robert R.
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