671 research outputs found
Observational Evidence for the Effect of Amplification Bias in Gravitational Microlensing Experiments
Recently Alard\markcite{alard1996} proposed to detect the shift of a star's
image centroid, , as a method to identify the lensed source among
blended stars. Goldberg & Wo\'zniak\markcite{goldberg1997} actually applied
this method to the OGLE-1 database and found that 7 out of 15 events showed
significant centroid shifts of arcsec. The amount of
centroid shift has been estimated theoretically by
Goldberg.\markcite{goldberg1997} However, he treated the problem in general and
did not apply it to a particular survey or field, and thus based his estimates
on simple toy model luminosity functions (i.e., power laws). In this paper, we
construct the expected distribution of for Galactic bulge events by
using the precise stellar LF observed by Holtzman et al.\markcite{holtzman1998}
using HST. Their LF is complete up to (),
corresponding to faint M-type stars. In our analysis we find that regular
blending cannot produce a large fraction of events with measurable centroid
shifts. By contrast, a significant fraction of events would have measurable
centroid shifts if they are affected by amplification-bias blending. Therefore,
Goldberg & Wo\'zniak's measurements of large centroid shifts for a large
fraction of microlensing events confirms the prediction of Han and Alard that a
large fraction of Galactic bulge events are affected by amplification-bias
blending.Comment: total 15 pages, including 6 figures, and no Table, submitted to ApJ
on Apr 26 1998, email [email protected]
Variable Stars in the Globular Cluster M5. Application of the Image Subtraction Method
We present -band light curves of 61 variables from the core of the
globular cluster M5 obtained using a newly developed image subtraction method
(ISM). Four of these variables were previously unknown. Only 26 variables were
found in the same field using photometry obtained with DoPHOT software. Fourier
parameters of the ISM light curves have relative errors up to 20 times smaller
than parameters measured from DoPHOT photometry. We conclude that the new
method is very promising for searching for variable stars in the cores of the
globular clusters and gives very accurate relative photometry with quality
comparable to photometry obtained by HST. We also show that the variable V104
is not an eclipsing star as has been suggested, but is an RRc star showing
non-radial pulsations.Comment: submitted to MNRAS, 9 pages, 4 figure
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The relationship between CK and CV chondrites: a single parent body source?
The relationship between CK and CV3 chondrites is examined. Both groups may represent a single continuum and have been derived from the same parent body
Microlensing toward crowded fields: Theory and applications to M31
We present a comprehensive treatment of the pixel-lensing theory and apply it
to lensing experiments and their results toward M31. Using distribution
functions for the distances, velocities, masses, and luminosities of stars, we
derive lensing event rates as a function of the event observables. In contrast
to the microlensing regime, in the pixel-lensing regime (crowded or unresolved
sources) the observables are the maximum excess flux of the source above a
background and the full width at half-maximum (FWHM) time of the event. To
calculate lensing event distribution functions depending on these observables
for the specific case of M31, we use data from the literature to construct a
model of M31, reproducing consistently photometry, kinematics and stellar
population. We predict the halo- and self-lensing event rates for bulge and
disk stars in M31 and treat events with and without finite source signatures
separately. We use the M31 photon noise profile and obtain the event rates as a
function of position, field of view, and S/N threshold at maximum
magnification. We calculate the expected rates for WeCAPP and for a potential
Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) lensing campaign. The detection of two events
with a peak signal-to-noise ratio larger than 10 and a timescale larger than 1
day in the WeCAPP 2000/2001 data is in good agreement with our theoretical
calculations. We investigate the luminosity function of lensed stars for noise
characteristics of WeCAPP and ACS. For the pixel-lensing regime, we derive the
probability distribution for the lens masses in M31 as a function of the FWHM
timescale, flux excess and color, including the errors of these observables.Comment: 45 pages, 27 figures LaTeX; corrected typos; published in the
Astrophysical Journal Supplemen
Towards Locating the Brightest Microlensing Events on the Sky
It is estimated that a star brighter than visual magnitude 17 is undergoing a
detectable gravitational microlensing event, somewhere on the sky, at any given
time. It is assumed that both lenses and sources are normal stars drawn from a
standard Bahcall-Soneira model of our Galaxy. Furthermore, over the time scale
of a year, a star 15th magnitude or brighter should undergo a detectable
gravitational lens amplification. Detecting and studying the microlensing event
rate among the brightest 10 stars could yield a better understanding of
Galactic stellar and dark matter distributions. Diligent tracking of bright
microlensing events with even small telescopes might detect planets orbiting
these stellar lenses.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures, accepted by Ap
Difference image photometry with bright variable backgrounds
Over the last two decades the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) has been something of a
test-bed for methods aimed at obtaining accurate time-domain relative
photometry within highly crowded fields. Difference imaging methods, originally
pioneered towards M31, have evolved into sophisticated methods, such as the
Optimal Image Subtraction (OIS) method of Alard & Lupton (1998), that today are
most widely used to survey variable stars, transients and microlensing events
in our own Galaxy. We show that modern difference image (DIA) algorithms such
as OIS, whilst spectacularly successful towards the Milky Way bulge, may
perform badly towards high surface brightness targets such as the M31 bulge.
Poor results can occur in the presence of common systematics which add spurious
flux contributions to images, such as internal reflections, scattered light or
fringing. Using data from the Angstrom Project microlensing survey of the M31
bulge, we show that very good results are usually obtainable by first
performing careful photometric alignment prior to using OIS to perform
point-spread function (PSF) matching. This separation of background matching
and PSF matching, a common feature of earlier M31 photometry techniques, allows
us to take full advantage of the powerful PSF matching flexibility offered by
OIS towards high surface brightness targets. We find that difference images
produced this way have noise distributions close to Gaussian, showing
significant improvement upon results achieved using OIS alone. We show that
with this correction light-curves of variable stars and transients can be
recovered to within ~10 arcseconds of the M31 nucleus. Our method is simple to
implement and is quick enough to be incorporated within real-time DIA
pipelines. (Abridged)Comment: 12 pages. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Includes an expanded
discussion of DIA testing and results, including additional lightcurve
example
Einstein Radii from Binary Lensing Events
We show that the Einstein ring radius and transverse speed of a lens
projected on the source plane, and , can be
determined from the light curve of a binary-source event, followed by the
spectroscopic determination of the orbital elements of the source stars. The
determination makes use of the same principle that allows one to measure the
Einstein ring radii from finite-source effects. For the case when the orbital
period of the source stars is much longer than the Einstein time scale, , there exists a single two-fold degeneracy in determining
. However, when the degeneracy can
often be broken by making use of the binary-source system's orbital motion.
%Once , and thus are determined, one can
%distinguish self-lensing events in the Large Magellanic Cloud %from Galactic
halo events. For an identifiable 8\% of all lensing events seen toward the
Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), one can unambiguously determine whether the
lenses are Galactic, or whether they lie in the LMC itself. The required
observations can be made after the event is over and could be carried out for
the events seen by Alcock et al.\ and Aubourg et al.. In addition, we
propose to include eclipsing binaries as sources for gravitational lensing
experiments.Comment: 18 pages, revised version, submitted to Ap
The Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment. Monitoring of QSO 2237+0305
We present results from 2 years of monitoring of Huchra's lens (QSO
2237+0305) with the 1.3 m Warsaw telescope on Las Campanas, Chile. Photometry
in the V band was done using a newly developed method for image subtraction.
Reliable subtraction without Fourier division removes all complexities
associated with the presence of a bright lensing galaxy. With positions of
lensed images adopted from HST measurements it is relatively easy to fit the
variable part of the flux in this system, as opposed to modeling of the
underlying galaxy. For the first time we observed smooth light variation over a
period of a few months, which can be naturally attributed to microlensing. We
also describe automated software capable of real time analysis of the images of
QSO 2237+0305. It is expected that starting from the next observing season in
1999 an alert system will be implemented for high amplification events (HAE) in
this object. Time sampling and photometric accuracy achieved should be
sufficient for early detection of caustic crossings.Comment: 8 pages (including 4 figures and table), latex, emulateapj, submitted
to ApJ, revised version - minor change
Microlensing in the double quasar SBS1520+530
We present the results of a monitoring campaign of the double quasar
SBS1520+530 at Maidanak observatory from April 2003 to August 2004. We obtained
light curves in V and R filters that show small-amplitude \Delta m~0.1 mag
intrinsic variations of the quasar on time scales of about 100 days. The data
set is consistent with the previously determined time delay of \Delta
t=(130+-3) days by Burud et al. (2002). We find that the time delay corrected
magnitude difference between the quasar images is now larger by (0.14+-0.03)
mag than during the observations by Burud et al. (2002). This confirms the
presence of gravitational microlensing variations in this system.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in A&
A New Channel for the Detection of Planetary Systems Through Microlensing: II. Repeating Events
In the companion paper we began the task of systematically studying the
detection of planets in wide orbits () via microlensing surveys.
In this paper we continue, focusing on repeating events. We find that, if all
planetary systems are similar to our own Solar System, reasonable extensions of
the present observing strategies would allow us to detect 3-6 repeating events
per year along the direction to the Bulge. Indeed, if planetary systems with
multiple planets are common, then future monitoring programs which lead to the
discovery of thousands of stellar-lens events will likely discover events in
which several different planets within a single system serve as lenses, with
light curves exhibiting multiple repetitions. In this paper we discuss
observing strategies to maximize the discovery of all wide-orbit planet-lens
events. We also compare the likely detection rates of planets in wide orbits to
those of planets located in the zone for resonant lensing. We find that,
depending on the values of the planet masses and stellar radii of the lensed
sources (which determine whether or not finite source size is important), and
also on the sensitivity of the photometry used by observers, the detection of
planets in wide orbits may be the primary route to the discovery of planets via
microlensing. We also discuss how the combination of resonant and wide-orbit
events can help us to learn about the distribution of planetary system
properties (S 6.1). In addition, by determining the fraction of short-duration
events due to planets, we indirectly derive information about the fraction of
all short-duration events that may be due to low-mass MACHOs (S 6.2).Comment: 51 pages, 7 figures. To be published in the Astrophysical Journal, 20
February 1999. This completes the introduction to the discovery of planets in
wide orbits begun in astro-ph/9808075, also to appear in ApJ on 20 February
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