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Gravitational Microlensing Results from Macho

W. Sutherland, C. Alcock, R. Allsman, T. Axelrod, D. Bennett, S. Chan, K. Cook, K. Freeman, K. Griest, S. Marshall, S. Perlmutter, B. Peterson, M. Pratt, P. Quinn, A. Rodgers, C. Stubbs

astro-pharXiv:astro-ph/9409034

Abstract

We provide a status report on our search for dark matter in our Galaxy in the form of massive compact halo objects (MACHOs), using gravitational microlensing of background stars. This search uses a very large CCD camera on the dedicated 1.27m telescope at Mt.~Stromlo, Australia, and has been taking data for 2 years. At present, we have analysed data for 8 million stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud over 1 year, resulting in one strong candidate event and two lower-amplitude candidates. We have also analysed 5 million stars in the Galactic Bulge for 0.5 years, yielding approximately 27 microlensing events.

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