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Characterizing low-mass binaries from observation of long-timescale caustic-crossing gravitational microlensing events

Shin, I. G ; Sharif University of Technology | 2012

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  1. Type of Document: Article
  2. DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/755/2/91
  3. Publisher: Institute of Physics Publishing , 2012
  4. Abstract:
  5. 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
  6. Keywords:
  7. Binaries: general ; Gravitational lensing: micro
  8. Source: Astrophysical Journal ; Volume 755, Issue 2 , 2012 ; 0004637X (ISSN)
  9. URL: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0004-637X/755/2/91/meta;jsessionid=1D494F8E682938E6174072392169D6E9.c3.iopscience.cld.iop.org