2004/01/31 by B. -G. Park, B.‐G. Park, D. L. DePoy +34
Physics and Astronomy · #Acceleration #Adaptive optics and wavefront sensing #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Bulge #Classical mechanics #Degeneracy (biology) #Einstein ring #Galaxy #Gravitational lens #Gravitational microlensing #Jerk #Light curve #Parallax #Physics #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/420926
published as Astrophys.J. 609 (2004) 166-172 · 19 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, ApJ, in press, 1 July 2004
arxiv created 2004/03/14 · openalex publication_date 2004/06/21 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
We analyze the Galactic bulge microlensing event MOA 2003-BLG-37. Although the Einstein timescale is relatively short, t E = 43 days, the light curve displays deviations consistent with parallax effects due to the Earth's accelerated motion. We show that the χ 2 surface has four distinct local minima that are induced by the "jerk-parallax" degeneracy, with pairs of solutions having projected Einstein radii E = 1.76 and 1.28 AU, respectively. This is the second event displaying such a degeneracy and the first toward the Galactic bulge. For both events, the jerk-parallax formalism accurately describes the offsets between the different solutions, giving hope that when extra solutions exist in future events they can easily be found. However, the morphologies of the χ 2 surfaces for the two events are quite different, implying that much remains to be understood about this degeneracy.