First Resolution of Microlensed Images of a Binary-lens Event
Abstract
We resolve the multiple images of the binary-lens microlensing event ASASSN-22av using the GRAVITY instrument of the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). The light curves show weak binary-lens perturbations, complicating the analysis, but the joint modeling with the VLTI data breaks several degeneracies, arriving at a strongly favored solution. Thanks to precise measurements of the angular Einstein radius θ E = 0.724 ± 0.002 mas and microlens parallax, we determine that the lens system consists of two M dwarfs with masses of M 1 = 0.258 ± 0.008 M ⊙ and M 2 = 0.130 ± 0.007 M ⊙, a projected separation of r ⊥ = 6.83 ± 0.31 au, and a distance of D L = 2.29 ± 0.08 kpc. The successful VLTI observations of ASASSN-22av open up a new path for studying intermediate-separation (i.e., a few astronomical units) stellar-mass binaries, including those containing dark compact objects such as neutron stars and stellar-mass black holes.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- December 2024
- DOI:
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2409.13015
- Bibcode:
- 2024ApJ...977..229W
- Keywords:
-
- Gravitational microlensing;
- Binary lens microlensing;
- Optical interferometry;
- 672;
- 2136;
- 1168;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics;
- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies;
- Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- Published in ApJ. See the ancillary file for animation associated with Fig. 8