Timothy S. Axelrod

Possible Gravitational Microlensing Of A Star In The Large Magellanic Cloud

THERE is now abundant evidence for the presence of large quantities of unseen matter surrounding normal galaxies, including our own1,2. The nature of this ’dark matter‘ is unknown, except that it cannot be made of normal stars, dust or gas, as they would be easily detected. Exotic particles such as axions, massive neutrinos or other weakly interacting massive particles (collectively known as WIMPs) have been proposed3,4, but have yet to be detected. A less exotic alternative is normal matter in the form of bodies with masses ranging from that of a large planet to a few solar masses. Such objects, known collectively as massive compact halo objects5 (MACHOs), might be brown dwarfs or ‘jupiters’ (bodies too small to produce their own energy by fusion), neutron stars, old white dwarfs or black holes. Paczynski6 suggested that MACHOs might act as gravitational microlenses, temporarily amplifying the apparent brightness of background stars in nearby galaxies. We are conducting a microlensing experiment to determine whether the dark matter halo of our Galaxy is made up of MACHOs. Here we report a candidate for such a microlensing event, detected by monitoring the light curves of 1.8 million stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud for one year. The light curve shows no variation for most of the year of data taking, and an upward excursion lasting over 1 month, with a maximum increase of ∼2 mag. The most probable lens mass, inferred from the duration of the candidate lensing event, is ∼0.1 solar mass.

The macho project: 45 candidate microlensing events from the first-year Galactic bulge data

We report the detection of 45 candidate microlensing events in fields toward the Galactic bulge. These come from the analysis of 24 fields containing 12.6 million stars observed for 190 days in 1993. Many of these events are of extremely high signal-to-noise ratio and are remarkable examples of gravitational microlensing. The distribution of peak magnifications is shown to be consistent with the microlensing interpretation of these events. Using a subsample of 1.3 million {open_quotes}clump giant{close_quotes} stars whose distance and detection efficiency are well known, we find 13 events and estimate the microlensing optical depth toward the Galactic bulge as {tau}{sub bulge}=3.9{sub {minus}1.2}{sup +1.8}{times}10{sup {minus}6} averaged over an area of {approximately}12deg{sup 2} centered at Galactic coordinates l=2.55{degree} and b=3.64{degree}. This is similar to the value reported by the OGLE collaboration and is marginally higher than current theoretical models for {tau}{sub bulge}. The optical depth is also seen to increase significantly for decreasing {vert_bar}b{vert_bar}. These results demonstrate that obtaining large numbers of microlensing events toward the Galactic bulge is feasible, and that the study of such events will have important consequences for the structure of the Galaxy and its dark halo. {copyright} {ital 1997} {ital The American Astronomical Society}

Airborne spectrophotometry of SN 1987A from 1.7 to 12.6 microns: time history of the dust continuum and line emission

Spectrophotometric observations (1.7-12.6 μm) of SN 1987A from the Kuiper Airborne Observatory are presented for five epochs at 60, 260, 415, 615, and 775 days after the explosion. A variety of emission lines is seen, including members of the hydrogen Humphreys, Pfund, Brackett, and Paschen series, fine-structure lines of metals (including (Ni II] 6.634 μm, (Ni I] 7.507 μm, (Ar II] 6.985 μm, and [Co II] 10.521 μm), and CO and SiO molecular bands. The temporal evolution of the seven strongest H lines follows case C recombination theory and yields large values of τ(Hα) at 260 and 415 days. A mass of ∼ 2 × 10 −3 M ○. is derived for stable nickel, and the ratio of the [Ni I] 7.507 μm and [Ni II] 6.634 μm line intensities yields a high ionization fraction of 0.9 in the nickel zone

The MACHO project LMC variable star inventory. 1: Beat Cepheids-conclusive evidence for the excitation of the second overtone in classical Cepheids

We report the discovery of 45 beat Cepheids in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) using the MACHO Project photometry database. The variables which are pulsating simultaneously in two radial modes are shown to break cleanly into two period-ratio groups, providing the first unambiguous evidence that the second overtone is indeed excited in real Cepheids. Thirty stars are beating in the fundamental and first overtone mode (F/1H, with a period ratio in the neighborhood of 0.72), and fifteen stars are beating in the first and second overtone (1H/2H, with a period ratio near 0.80). The F/1H period ratios are systematically higher than known Galactic beat Cepheids, indicating a metallicity dependence whose sense is in agreement with theory. Beat Cepheids in the LMC are found to select the 1H/2H mode for fundamental periods shorter than 1.25 days. We find the fraction of Cepheids excited in two modes to be about 20\% for stars with fundamental periods shorter than 2.5 days. We fail to confirm any of the proposed beat Cepheid candidates common to our sample from the surveys of Andreasen (1987) and Andreasen \& Petersen (1987). We also present finder charts and find several of the beat Cepheids to be in or near LMC clusters.

LARGE SYNOPTIC SURVEY TELESCOPE: FROM SCIENCE DRIVERS TO REFERENCE DESIGN

In the history of astronomy, major advances in our understanding of the Universe have come from dramatic improvements in our ability to accurately measure astronomical quantities. Aided by rapid progress in information technology, current sky surveys are changing the way we view and study the Universe. Next-generation surveys will maintain this revolutionary progress. We focus here on the most ambitious survey currently planned in the visible band, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). LSST will have unique survey capability in the faint time domain. The LSST design is driven by four main science themes: constraining dark energy and dark matter, taking an inventory of the Solar System, exploring the transient optical sky, and mapping the Milky Way. It will be a large, wide-field ground-based system designed to obtain multiple images covering the sky that is visible from Cerro Pachon in Northern Chile. The current baseline design, with an 8.4 m (6.5 m effective) primary mirror, a 9.6 deg{sup 2} field of view, and a 3,200 Megapixel camera, will allow about 10,000 square degrees of sky to be covered using pairs of 15-second exposures in two photometric bands every three nights on average. The system is designed to yield high image quality, as well as superb astrometric and photometric accuracy. The survey area will include 30,000 deg{sup 2} with {delta} < +34.5{sup o}, and will be imaged multiple times in six bands, ugrizy, covering the wavelength range 320-1050 nm. About 90% of the observing time will be devoted to a deep-wide-fast survey mode which will observe a 20,000 deg{sup 2} region about 1000 times in the six bands during the anticipated 10 years of operation. These data will result in databases including 10 billion galaxies and a similar number of stars, and will serve the majority of science programs. The remaining 10% of the observing time will be allocated to special programs such as Very Deep and Very Fast time domain surveys. We describe how the LSST science drivers led to these choices of system parameters.

Gravitational Microlensing Events Due to Stellar-Mass Black Holes

We present an analysis of the longest timescale microlensing events discovered by the MACHO Collaboration during a 7 year survey of the Galactic bulge. We find six events that exhibit very strong microlensing parallax signals due, in part, to accurate photometric data from the GMAN and MPS collaborations. The microlensing parallax fit parameters are used in a likelihood analysis, which is able to estimate the distances and masses of the lens objects based on a standard model of the Galactic velocity distribution. This analysis indicates that the most likely masses of five of the six lenses are greater than 1 M☉, which suggests that a substantial fraction of the Galactic lenses may be massive stellar remnants. This could explain the observed excess of long-timescale microlensing events. The lenses for events MACHO-96-BLG-5 and MACHO-98-BLG-6 are the most massive, with mass estimates of M/M☉ = 6 and M/M☉ = 6, respectively. The observed upper limits on the absolute brightness of main-sequence stars for these lenses are less than 1 L☉, so both lenses are black hole candidates. The black hole interpretation is also favored by a likelihood analysis with a Bayesian prior using a conventional model for the lens mass function. We consider the possibility that the source stars for some of these six events may lie in the foreground Galactic disk or in the Sagittarius (Sgr) dwarf galaxy behind the bulge, but we find that bulge sources are likely to dominate our microlensing parallax event sample. Future Hubble Space Telescope observations of these events can either confirm the black hole lens hypothesis or detect the lens stars and provide a direct measurement of their masses. Future observations of similar events by the Space Interferometry Mission or the Keck or VLT interferometers, as explained by Delplancke, Gorski, & Richichi, will allow direct measurements of the lens masses for stellar remnant lenses as well.

Effects of synchronization barriers on multiprocessor performance

Abstract Synchronization barriers are frequently required by numerical algorithms for multiprocessors. When the number of processors becomes large these barriers may cause significant performance degradation. This paper examines the performance of two alternative types of synchronization barriers using simulation tools. It is found that the performance of a recently proposed ‘butterfly’ barrier is significantly higher than the more traditional ‘two lock’ barrier.

EXPERIMENTAL LIMITS ON THE DARK MATTER HALO OF THE GALAXY FROM GRAVITATIONAL MICROLENSING

We monitored 8.6{times}10{sup 6} stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud for 1.1 years and have found three events consistent with gravitational microlensing. We place strong constraints on Galactic halo lensing objects in the mass range 10{sup {minus}4}{ital M}{sub {circle_dot}} to 10{sup {minus}1}{ital M}{sub {circle_dot}}. Three events are fewer than expected for a standard spherical halo of objects in this mass range, but appear to exceed the number expected from known Galactic populations. Fitting a naive spherical halo model to our data yields a MACHO fraction {ital f} of massive compact halo objects (MACHOs), {ital f}=0.19{sub {minus}0.10}{sup +0.16}, a total MACHO mass (inside 50 kpc) of 7.6{sub {minus}4}{sup +6}{times}10{sup 10}{ital M}{sub {circle_dot}}, and a microlensing optical depth 8.8{sub {minus}5}{sup +7}{times}10{sup {minus}8} (68% C.L.).

First Detection of a Gravitational Microlensing Candidate toward the Small Magellanic Cloud

We report the first discovery of a gravitational microlensing candidate toward a new population of source stars, the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). The candidate events light curve shows no variation for 3 yr before an upward excursion lasting ~217 days that peaks around 1997 January 11 at a magnification of ~2.1. Microlensing events toward the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Galactic bulge have allowed important conclusions to be reached on the stellar and dark matter content of the Milky Way. The SMC gives a new line of sight through the Milky Way and is expected to prove useful in determining the flattening of the Galactic halo.

Gravitational microlensing as a method of detecting disk dark matter and faint disk stars

Gravitational microlensing of stars in the Galactic bulge is proposed as a method of probing the mass density of disk objects in the 0.001 to 0.1 solar mass range. A substantial rate is found if disk dark matter of this form exists, and even without any dark matter, a significant microlensing rate is found, owing to the faint low-mass disk stars which are known to exist. Such a search would provide new information on the disk dark matter question, probe the low-end stellar mass function, and also search for halo dark matter, all with rates comparable to those expected for the ongoing LMC microlensing halo dark matter searches. 17 refs.