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Despite the astrophysical importance of binary star systems, detections are limited to those located in small ranges of separations, distances, and masses and thus it is necessary to use a variety of observational techniques for a complete view of stellar multiplicity across a broad range of physical parameters. In this paper, we report the detections and measurements of two binaries discovered from observations of microlensing events MOA-2011-BLG-090 and OGLE-2011-BLG-0417. Determinations of the binary masses are possible by simultaneously measuring the Einstein radius and the lens parallax. The measured masses of the binary components are 0.43 M☼ and 0.39 M☼ for MOA-2011-BLG-090 and 0.57 M☼ and 0.17 M☼ for OGLE-2011-BLG-0417 and thus both lens components of MOA-2011-BLG-090 and one component of OGLE-2011-BLG-0417 are M dwarfs, demonstrating the usefulness of microlensing in detecting binaries composed of low-mass components. From modeling of the light curves considering full Keplerian motion of the lens, we also measure the orbital parameters of the binaries. The blended light of OGLE-2011-BLG-0417 comes very likely from the lens itself, making it possible to check the microlensing orbital solution by follow-up radial-velocity observation. For both events, the caustic-crossing parts of the light curves, which are critical for determining the physical lens parameters, were resolved by high-cadence survey observations and thus it is expected that the number of microlensing binaries with measured physical parameters will increase in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussing the particularly long gravitational microlensing event OGLE-2014-BLG-1186 with a time-scale t E ∼ 300 d, we present a methodology for identifying the nature of localised deviations from single-lens point-source light curves, which ensures that (1) the claimed signal is substantially above the noise floor, (2) the inferred properties are robustly determined and their estimation is not subject to confusion with systematic noise in the photometry, (3) alternative viable solutions within the model framework are not missed. Annual parallax and binarity could be separated and robustly measured from the wing and the peak data, respectively. We find matching model light curves that involve either a binary lens or a binary source, and discover hitherto unknown model ambiguities. Our binary-lens models indicate a planet of mass M 2 = (45 ± 9) M⊕, orbiting a star of mass M 1 = (0.35 ± 0.06) M⊙, located at a distance D L = (1.7 ± 0.3) kpc from Earth, whereas our binary-source models suggest a brown-dwarf lens of M  = (0.046 ± 0.007) M⊙, located at a distance D L = (5.7 ± 0.9) kpc, with the source potentially being a (partially) eclipsing binary involving stars predicted to be of similar colour given the ratios between the luminosities and radii. Further observations might resolve the ambiguity in the interpretation in favour of either a lens or a source binary. We experienced that close binary source stars pose a challenge for claiming the detection of planets by microlensing in events where the source passes very close to the lens star hosting the planet. [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]

Microlensing can provide a useful tool to probe binary distributions down to low-mass limits of binary companions. In this paper, we analyze the light curves of eight binary-lensing events detected through the channel of high-magnification events during the seasons from 2007 to 2010. The perturbations, which are confined near the peak of the light curves, can be easily distinguished from the central perturbations caused by planets. However, the degeneracy between close and wide binary solutions cannot be resolved with a 3σ confidence level for three events, implying that the degeneracy would be an important obstacle in studying binary distributions. The dependence of the degeneracy on the lensing parameters is consistent with a theoretical prediction that the degeneracy becomes severe as the binary separation and the mass ratio deviate from the values of resonant caustics. The measured mass ratio of the event OGLE-2008-BLG-510/MOA-2008-BLG-369 is q ~ 0.1, making the companion of the lens a strong brown dwarf candidate. [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]

The mass of the lenses giving rise to Galactic microlensing events can be constrained by measuring the relative lens-source proper motion and lens flux. The flux of the lens can be separated from that of the source, companions to the source, and unrelated nearby stars with high-resolution images taken when the lens and source are spatially resolved. For typical ground-based adaptive optics (AO) or space-based observations, this requires either inordinately long time baselines or high relative proper motions. We provide a list of microlensing events toward the Galactic bulge with high relative lens-source proper motion that are therefore good candidates for constraining the lens mass with future high-resolution imaging. We investigate all events from 2004 to 2013 that display detectable finite-source effects, a feature that allows us to measure the proper motion. In total, we present 20 events with μ ≳ 8 mas yr–1. Of these, 14 were culled from previous analyses while 6 are new, including OGLE-2004-BLG-368, MOA-2005-BLG-36, OGLE-2012-BLG-0211, OGLE-2012-BLG-0456, MOA-2012-BLG-532, and MOA-2013-BLG-029. In ≲12 yr from the time of each event the lens and source of each event will be sufficiently separated for ground-based telescopes with AO systems or space telescopes to resolve each component and further characterize the lens system. Furthermore, for the most recent events, comparison of the lens flux estimates from images taken immediately to those estimated from images taken when the lens and source are resolved can be used to empirically check the robustness of the single-epoch method currently being used to estimate lens masses for many events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]