Microlensing as a probe of the Galactic structure; 20 years of microlensing optical depth studies

Abstract

Microlensing is now a very popular observational astronomical technique. The investigations accessible through this effect range from the dark matter problem to the search for extra-solar planets. In this review, the techniques to search for microlensing effects and to determine optical depths through the monitoring of large samples of stars will be described. The consequences of the published results on the knowledge of the Milky-Way structure and its dark matter component will be discussed. The difficulties and limitations of the ongoing programs and the perspectives of the microlensing optical depth technique as a probe of the Galaxy structure will also be detailed.

Accepted for publication in General Relativity and Gravitation. General Relativity and Gravitation in press (2010) 00

References in corpus (5)

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• MOA-cam3: a wide-field mosaic CCD camera for a gravitational microlensing survey in New Zealand
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• MaB$\mu$lS-2: high-precision microlensing modelling for the large-scale survey era
• Searching for Galactic hidden gas through interstellar scintillation: Results from a test with the NTT-SOFI detector
• Probing the Milky Way stellar and brown dwarf initial mass function with modern microlensing observations
• Constraining the vertical structure of the Milky Way rotation by microlensing in a finite-width global disk model
• Implications Of A Dark Sector U(1) For Gamma Ray Bursts
• Gravitational Lensing of Core Collapse Supernova Gravitational Wave Signals