On the Detectability of Very Massive Compact Objects with Gravitational Microlensing

Abstract

If the dark halo of our galaxy is made of compact objects as massive as M = 10^6 solar masses, their detection by means of ordinary microlensing searches would take a very long time as the characteristic time scale of such a lensing event, t_0, is approximately 200 years. Fortunately, the very high magnification events of the numerous faint stars, which are normally well below the detection threshold, have short duration peaks with a characteristic time scale of only t_0 / A_{max}, where A_{max} >> 1 is the peak magnification factor. The two almost equally bright images are separated by approximately 2'' (M/10^6 solar masses )^{1/2}, and they rotate very rapidly around the lens with the relative proper motion enhanced by a factor 2 A_{max}. The same events will offer an opportunity to study spectroscopically stars which are normally far too faint to be reached.