Search

We report the result of the analysis of the light curve of a caustic-crossing binary-lens microlensing event OGLE-2009-BLG-023/MOA-2009-BLG-028. Even though the event was observed solely by survey experiments, we could uniquely determine the mass of the lens and distance to it by simultaneously measuring the Einstein radius and lens parallax. From this, we find that the lens system is composed of M-type dwarfs with masses $(0.50\pm 0.07) \ M_\odot$ and $(0.15\pm 0.02)\ M_\odot$ located in the Galactic disk with a distance of $\sim 1.8$ kpc toward the Galactic bulge direction. The event demonstrates that physical lens parameters of binary-lens events can be routinely determined from future high-cadence lensing surveys and thus microlensing can provide a new way to study Galactic binaries.

Microlensing events are usually selected among single-peaked non-repeating light curves in order to avoid confusion with variable stars. However, a microlensing event may exhibit a second microlensing brightening episode when the source or/and the lens is a binary system. A careful analysis of these repeating events provides an independent way to study the statistics of wide binary stars and to detect extrasolar planets. Previous theoretical studies predicted that 0.5 - 2 % of events should repeat due to wide binary lenses. We present a systematic search for such events in about 4000 light curves of microlensing candidates detected by the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) towards the Galactic Bulge from 1992 to 2007. The search reveals a total of 19 repeating candidates, with 6 clearly due to a wide binary lens. As a by-product we find that 64 events (~2% of the total OGLE-III sample) have been miss-classified as microlensing; these miss-classified events are mostly nova or other types of eruptive stars. The number and importance of repeating events will increase considerably when the next-generation wide-field microlensing experiments become fully operational in the future., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures (+ appendix A) and 3 tables

We report the discovery of a several-Jupiter mass planetary companion to the primary lens star in microlensing event OGLE-2005-BLG-071. Precise (, 4 pages. Minor changes. Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters

We fit binary lens models to the data covering the initial part of real microlensing events in an attempt to predict the time of the second caustic crossing. We use approximations during the initial search through the parameter space for light curves that roughly match the observed ones. Exact methods for calculating the lens magnification of an extended source are used when we refine our best initial models. Our calculations show that the reliable prediction of the second crossing can only be made very late, when the light curve has risen appreciably after the minimum between the two caustic-crossings. The best observational strategy is therefore to sample as frequently as possible once the light curve starts to rise after the minimum., Comment: 14 pages + 3 EPS figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

We present observations of the unusual microlensing event OGLE 2003-BLG-235/MOA 2003-BLG-53. In this event a short duration (~7 days) low amplitude deviation in the light curve due a single lens profile was observed in both the MOA and OGLE survey observations. We find that the observed features of the light curve can only be reproduced using a binary microlensing model with an extreme (planetary) mass ratio of 0.0039 +/- (11, 07) for the lensing system. If the lens system comprises a main sequence primary, we infer that the secondary is a planet of about 1.5 Jupiter masses with an orbital radius of ~3 AU., 13 pages, 3 colour figures. To appear in Astrophysical Journal Letters (May 2004)

Geometrical optics provides an excellent description for quasar images crossing caustics which are formed by gravitational microlensing of objects like Q2237+0305. Within this approximation the source size can be estimated from the maximum magnification reached at caustic crossings. We evaluate the limitations imposed by diffraction on caustics using the formalism developed by Ulmer & Goodman (1995). Close to a caustic a new characteristic length, smaller that the Fresnel length, enters the problem, limiting the angular resolution to about 0.2 pico arcsecond, or equivalently about 3*10^9 cm at the source. To achieve this resolution the brightness must be monitored at time intervals of a few seconds. If a significant fraction of quasar luminosity comes from sources smaller than those limits then interference effects would make the observed intensity oscillate, in a close analogy with a two slit experiment. The characteristic period of such oscillations is expected to be about one tenth of a minute. If such oscillations are detected then photometry carried out at a single site may permit the determination of the caustic transverse velocity, and therefore may permit a direct conversion of the time units of brightness variations to the linear units at the source. Subject headings: Gravitational lensing - dark matter - quasars: structure -quasars: Q2237+0305, 10 pages, plain TEX file, no figures. Submitted to ApJ postscript available at by anonymous ftp at ftp://astro.princeton.edu/library/preprint/pop615.ps.Z

Surface brightness maps for thin accretion disks around Schwarzschild and Kerr black holes are presented. These disks are a few times smaller than those used by Rauch and Blandford (1991), and some of the present models are slightly less luminous than theirs. Example of microlensed light curves are calculated by convolving these accretion disk maps with the magnification patterns obtained from microlensing calculations. The light curves exhibit eventlike variations with amplitudes and time scales comparable to those observed in QSO 2237 + 0305. It is concluded that thin thermal accretion disk models are not in contradiction with the observed microlens-induced variations of QSO 2237 + 0305.