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HST Imaging of MEGA Microlensing Candidates in M31

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 نشر من قبل Patrick Cseresnjes
 تاريخ النشر 2005
  مجال البحث فيزياء
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We investigate $HST$/ACS and WFPC2 images at the positions of five candidate microlensing events from a large survey of variability in M31 (MEGA). Three closely match unresolved sources, and two produce only flux upper limits. All are confined to regions of the color-magnitude diagram where stellar variability is unlikely to be easily confused with microlensing. Red variable stars cannot explain these events (although background supernova are possible for two). If these lenses arise in M31s halo, they are due to masses $0.15 < m / M_odot < 0.49$ (95% certainty, for a $delta$-function mass distribution), brown dwarfs for disk lenses, and stellar masses for bulge lenses.

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