Galactic Bulge Microlensing Events with Clump Giants as Sources
/ Authors
P. Popowski, C. Alcock, R. Allsman, D. Alves, T. Axelrod, A. Becker, D. Bennett, K. Cook, A. Drake, K. Freeman
and 14 more authors
M. Geha, K. Griest, M. Lehner, S. Marshall, D. Minniti, C. Nelson, B. Peterson, M. Pratt, P. Quinn, C. Stubbs, W. Sutherland, A. Tomaney, T. Vandehei, D. Welch
/ Abstract
We present preliminary results of the analysis of 5 years of MACHO data on the Galactic bulge microlensing events with clump giants as sources. In particular, we discuss: 1) the selection of `giant' events, 2) distribution of impact parameters, 3) distribution of event durations, 4) the concentration of long duration events in MACHO field 104 centered on (l,b) = (3.1,-3.0). We report the preliminary average optical depth of (2.0 +/- 0.4) x 10^{-6} (internal) at (l,b) = (3.9,-3.8). We discuss future work and prospects for building a coherent model of the Galaxy.
Journal: arXiv: Astrophysics