Lens parameters for Gaia18cbf -- a long gravitational microlensing event in the Galactic plane

Abstract

Context: The timescale of a microlensing event scales as a square root of a lens mass. Therefore, long-lasting events are important candidates for massive lenses, including black holes. Aims: Here we present the analysis of the Gaia18cbf microlensing event reported by the Gaia Science Alerts system. It exhibited a long timescale and features that are common for the annual microlensing parallax effect. We deduce the parameters of the lens based on the derived best fitting model. Methods: We used photometric data collected by the Gaia satellite as well as the follow-up data gathered by the ground-based observatories. We investigated the range of microlensing models and used them to derive the most probable mass and distance to the lens using a Galactic model as a prior. Using known mass-brightness relation we determined how likely it is that the lens is a main-sequence (MS) star. Results: This event is one of the longest ever detected, with the Einstein timescale of $t_{\mathrm{E}}=491.41_{-84.94}^{+128.31}$ days for the best solution and $t_{\mathrm{E}}=453.74_{-105.74}^{+178.69}$ days for the second-best. Assuming Galaxy priors, this translates to the most probable lens mass of $M_{\mathrm{L}}=2.65_{-1.48}^{+5.09}{M}_{\odot }$ and $M_{\mathrm{L}}=1.71_{-1.06}^{+3.78}{M}_{\odot }$, respectively. The limits on the blended light suggest that this event was most likely not caused by a MS star, but rather by a dark remnant of stellar evolution.

accepted by Astonomy&Astrophysics, 12 pages, 5 figures

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• Dark lens candidates from Gaia Data Release 3
• Gaia21blx: Complete resolution of a binary microlensing event in the Galactic disk
• Gaia20fnr: A binary-lens microlensing event with full orbital motion revealed by four space telescopes
• Constraining Lens Masses in Moderately to Highly Magnified Microlensing Events from Gaia
• TESS's First Bound Microlensing Planet: A Binary Microlensing Event Revealing a Planetary Companion toward the Galactic Plane