The Point-Agape survey: No Need for Machos in M31 ?

Preprint
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
We have carried out a survey of the Andromeda galaxy for unresolved microlensing (pixel lensing). We present a subset of four short timescale microlensing candidates with high ratio of signal to noise, by imposing severe selection criteria: the source flux variation exceeds the flux of a R=21 magnitude star and the full-width half-maximum timescale is less than 25 days. One event, which lies projected on the M31 bulge is probably due to a bulge stellar lens. The other three candidates can be explained either by stars in M31 and M32, or by massive compact halo objects (MACHOs). As all four events can reasonably be attributed to stellar lenses, we conclude that our subsample of high ratio signal-to-noise candidates does not require the presence of MACHOs.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: