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Although many models have been proposed, the physical mechanisms responsible for the formation of low-mass brown dwarfs (BDs) are poorly understood. Themultiplicity properties and minimummass 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 0.025M☉ and 0.034M☉, and projected separations of 0.31 AU and 0.19 AU, making them the lowestmass and tightest field BD binaries known. The discovery of a population of such binaries indicates that BD binaries can robustly form at least down to masses of ~0.02M☉. Future microlensing surveys will measure a mass-selected sample of BD binary systems, which can then be directly compared to similar samples of stellar binaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context. Caustic crossing is the clearest signature of binary lenses in microlensing. In the present context, this signature is diluted by the large source star but a detailed analysis has allowed the companion signal to be extracted. Aims. MOA 2009-BLG-411 was detected on August 5, 2009 by the MOA-Collaboration. Alerted as a high-magnification event, it was sensitive to planets. Suspected anomalies in the light curve were not confirmed by a real-time model, but further analysis revealed small deviations from a single lens extended source fit. Methods. Thanks to observations by all the collaborations, this event was well monitored. We first decided to characterize the source star properties by using a more refined method than the classical one: we measure the interstellar absorption along the line of sight in five different passbands (VIJHK). Secondly, we model the lightcurve by using the standard technique: make (s, q, α) grids to look for local minima and refine the results by using a downhill method (Markov chain Monte Carlo). Finally, we use a Galactic model to estimate the physical properties of the lens components. Results. We find that the source star is a giant G star with radius 9 R☉. The grid search gives two local minima, which correspond to the theoretical degeneracy s ≡ s-1. We find that the lens is composed of a brown dwarf secondary of mass MS = 0.05 M☉ orbiting a primary M-star of mass MP = 0.18 M☉. We also reveal a new mass-ratio degeneracy for the central caustics of close binaries. Conclusions. As far as we are aware, this is the first detection using the microlensing technique of a binary system in our Galaxy composed of an M-star and a brown dwarf [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the result of the analysis of the gravitational binary-lensing event OGLE-2005-BLG-018. The light curve of the event is characterized by two adjacent strong features and a single weak feature separated from the strong features. The light curve exhibits noticeable deviations from the best-fit model based on standard binary parameters. To explain the deviation, we test models including various higher-order effects of the motions of the observer, source, and lens. From this, we find that it is necessary to account for the orbital motion of the lens in describing the light curve. From modeling the light curve considering the parallax effect and Keplerian orbital motion, we are able to not only measure the physical parameters but also to find a complete orbital solution of the lens system. It is found that the event was produced by a binary lens located in the Galactic bulge with a distance of 6.7 ± 0.3 kpc from the Earth. The individual lens components with masses 0.9 ± 0.3 M ☉ and 0.5 ± 0.1 M ☉ are separated with a semi-major axis of a = 2.5 ± 1.0 AU and orbiting each other with a period P = 3.1 ± 1.3 yr. This event demonstrates that it is possible to extract detailed information about binary lens systems from well-resolved lensing light curves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the analysis of the gravitational microlensing event OGLE-2013-BLG-0102. The light curve of the event is characterized by a strong short-term anomaly superposed on a smoothly varying lensing curve with a moderate magnification Amax ~1.5. It is found that the event was produced by a binary lens with a mass ratio between the components of q = 0.13 and the anomaly was caused by the passage of the source trajectory over a caustic located away from the barycenter of the binary. From the analysis of the effects on the light curve due to the finite size of the source and the parallactic motion of the Earth, the physical parameters of the lens system are determined. The measured masses of the lens components are M1 = 0.096 ± 0.013 M⊙ and M2 = 0.012±0.002 M⊙, which correspond to near the hydrogen-burning and deuterium-burning mass limits, respectively. The distance to the lens is 3.04±0.31 kpc and the projected separation between the lens components is 0.80 ± 0.08 AU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the first example of binary microlensing for which the parameter measurements can be verified (or contradicted) by future Doppler observations. This test is made possible by a confluence of two relatively unusual circumstances. First, the binary lens is bright enough (I = 15.6) to permit Doppler measurements. Second, we measure not only the usual seven binary-lens parameters, but also the "microlens parallax" (which yields the binary mass) and two components of the instantaneous orbital velocity. Thus, we measure, effectively, six "Kepler+1" parameters (two instantaneous positions, two instantaneous velocities, the binary total mass, and the mass ratio). Since Doppler observations of the brighter binary component determine five Kepler parameters (period, velocity amplitude, eccentricity, phase, and position of periapsis), while the same spectroscopy yields the mass of the primary, the combined Doppler + microlensing observations would be overconstrained by 6 + (5 + 1) - (7 + 1) = 4 degrees of freedom. This makes possible an extremely strong test of the microlensing solution. We also introduce a uniform microlensing notation for single and binary lenses, define conventions, summarize all known microlensing degeneracies, and extend a set of parameters to describe full Keplerian motion of the binary lenses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]