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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, RW
The 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 Journal

Volume

723

Pagination

797-802

ISSN

0004-637X

Department/School

School of Natural Sciences

Publisher

Univ Chicago Press

Place of publication

1427 E 60Th St, Chicago, USA, Il, 60637-2954

Rights statement

Copyright © 2010 Institute of Physics

Repository Status

  • Restricted

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