| Authors: | S. Calchi Novati (1), S. Paulin-Henriksson (2), J. An (3), P. Baillon (4), V. Belokurov (3), B.J. Carr (5), M. Creze (2,6), N.W. Evans (3), Y. Giraud-Heraud (2), A. Gould (7), Ph. Jetzer (1), J. Kaplan (2), E. Kerins (8), P. Hewett (3), S.J. |
| Abstract: | The POINT-AGAPE collaboration is carrying out a search for gravitational
microlensing toward M31 to reveal galactic dark matter in the form of MACHOs
(Massive Astrophysical Compact Halo Objects) in the halos of the Milky Way and
M31. A high-threshold analysis of 3 years of data yields 6 bright,
short--duration microlensing events, which are confronted to a simulation of
the observations and the analysis. The observed signal is much larger than
expected from self lensing alone and we conclude, at the 95% confidence level,
that at least 20% of the halo mass in the direction of M31 must be in the form
of MACHOs if their average mass lies in the range 0.5-1 M$_\odot$. This lower
bound drops to 8% for MACHOs with masses $\sim 0.01$ M$_\odot$. In addition, we
discuss a likely binary microlensing candidate with caustic crossing. Its
location, some 32' away from the centre of M31, supports our conclusion that we
are detecting a MACHO signal in the direction of M31. |
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