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OGLE-2005-BLG-153: Microlensing discovery and characterization of a very low mass binary
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-17, 04:32 authored by Hwang, KH, Udalski, A, Han, C, Ryu, YH, Bond, IA, Beaulieu, JP, Dominik, M, Horne, K, Gould, A, Gaudi, BS, Kubiak, M, Szymanski, MK, Pietrzynski, G, Soszynski, I, Szewczyk, O, Ulaczyk, K, Wyrzykowski, L, Abe, F, Botzler, CS, Hearnshaw, JB, Itow, Y, Kamiya, K, Kilmartin, PM, Masuda, K, Matsubara, Y, Motomura, M, Muraki, Y, Nakamura, S, Ohnishi, K, Okada, C, Rattenbury, N, Saito, TO, Sako, T, Sasaki, M, Sullivan, DJ, Sumi, T, Tristram, PJ, Wood, JN, Yock, PCM, Yoshioka, T, Albrow, M, Bennett, DP, Bramich, DM, Brillant, S, Caldwell, JAR, Calitz, JJ, Cassan, A, Cook, KH, Corrales, E, Coutures, C, Desort, M, Dieters, S, Dominis, D, Donatowicz, J, Fouque, P, Greenhill, J, Harpsoe, K, Kym HillKym Hill, Hoffman, M, Jorgensen, UG, Kane, S, Kubas, D, Martin, R, Marquette, JB, Meintjes, P, Menzies, J, Pollard, K, Sahu, K, Steele, I, Vinter, C, Wambsganss, G, Williams, A, Woller, K, Burgdorf, M, Snodgrass, C, Bode, M, Depoy, D, Lee, CU, Park, BG, Pogge, RWThe mass function and statistics of binaries provide important diagnostics of the star formation process. Despite this importance, the mass function at low masses remains poorly known due to observational difficulties caused by the faintness of the objects. Here we report the microlensing discovery and characterization of a binary lens composed of very low mass stars just above the hydrogen-burning limit. From the combined measurements of the Einstein radius and microlens parallax, we measure the masses of the binary components of 0.10+-0.01 M and 0.09+-0.01 M. This discovery demonstrates that microlensing will provide a method to measure the mass function of all Galactic populations of very low mass binaries that is independent of the biases caused by the luminosity of the population.
History
Publication title
Astrophysical JournalVolume
723Pagination
797-802ISSN
0004-637XDepartment/School
School of Natural SciencesPublisher
Univ Chicago PressPlace of publication
1427 E 60Th St, Chicago, USA, Il, 60637-2954Rights statement
Copyright © 2010 Institute of PhysicsRepository Status
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