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WorksPhysics and Astronomy

New limits from microlensing on Galactic Black Holes in the mass range 10M⊙<M<1000M⊙10M_{\odot}<M<1000M_{\odot}

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Abstract · v1

We have searched for long duration microlensing events originating from intermediate mass Black Holes (BH) in the halo of the Milky Way, using archival data from EROS-2 and MACHO photometric surveys towards the Large Magellanic Cloud. We combined data from these two surveys to create a common database of light curves for 14.1 million objects in LMC, covering a total duration of 10.6 years, with flux series measured through four wide passbands. We have carried out a microlensing search on these light curves, complemented by the light curves of 22.7 million objects, observed by EROS-2 only or MACHO only over about 7 years, with flux series measured through only two passbands. A likelihood analysis, taking into account LMC self lensing and Milky Way disk contributions allows us to conclude that compact objects with masses in the range 10−100M⊙10 - 100 M_{\odot} cannot make up more than ∼15%\sim 15\% of a standard halo total mass (at 95%95\% confidence level). Our analysis sensitivity weakens for heavier objects, although we still exclude that ∼50%\sim 50\% of the halo be made of ∼1000M⊙\sim 1000 M_{\odot} BHs. Combined with previous EROS results, an upper limit of ∼15%\sim 15\% of the total halo mass can be obtained for the contribution of compact halo objects in the mass range 10−6−102M⊙10^{-6} - 10^2 M_{\odot}.

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