A consistent microlensing model for the Galactic bar
Abstract
We compute a microlensing map for the Galactic bar. The predicted event rate and event duration distribution are consistent with the 55 events recently reported by the MACHO and OGLE collaborations. Most of the events are due to lensing by stars in the near end of the bar. Lens mass functions with about 30-60 per cent of the lens mass as brown dwarfs are rejected at 2sigma-6sigma levels. To make our model useful for other workers, we tabulate the optical depth of the bar and average event duration (scaled to 1-M_ lenses) on a grid of galactic coordinates. The distance and the proper motions of the lens and the source are derived from a consistent dynamical model of the stellar bar, which has originally been built to fit data on the stellar light and stellar/gas kinematics of the bar. We explore several alternative models, and we find that our standard model best matches the observations.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- September 1996
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnras/282.1.175
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/9512065
- Bibcode:
- 1996MNRAS.282..175Z
- Keywords:
-
- STARS: LOW-MASS;
- BROWN DWARFS;
- GALAXY: KINEMATICS AND DYNAMICS;
- GALAXY: STRUCTURE;
- DARK MATTER;
- GRAVITATIONAL LENSING;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- submitted to MNRAS