Reddening of microlensed LMC stars vs. the location of the lenses

Abstract

We propose an observational test that can break the degeneracy of two main classes of microlensing models to the Magellanic Clouds: (a) the lenses are located in the Galactic halo, and (b) the lenses are located in the LMC disk. The source stars in the latter (self-lensing) models tend to be at the far side or behind the LMC disk, thus experience more reddening and extinction by dust in the LMC disk than ordinary stars in a nearby line of sight. Clearly such bias would not occur in the macho halo lensing models. We show that this reddening effect is at a level readily observable for the present 30 or so microlensing alerts fields, either with multi-band photometry from a good seeing site, or more definitively with ultra-violet (UV) spectroscopy with Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS). Stars behind the LMC dust layer should stand out as UV-faint objects (by more than 1 mag than average stars in the LMC). HST can also resolve numerous faint neighbouring stars within a few arcsecs of a lensed source, hence remove blending in these crowded regions and build a reddening map to control the patchiness of dust.