2016/08/31 by George Chapline, G. Chapline, Paul H. Frampton +1 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Baryonic dark matter #Brown dwarf #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark matter #Dark matter halo #Galactic halo #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Gravitational microlensing #Halo #Massive compact halo object #Physics #Solar mass #Stars #astro-ph.GA #gr-qc #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2016/11/042
Typos corrected
openalex created_date 2016/09/16 · arxiv created 2016/11/03 · openalex publication_date 2016/11/21 · arxiv updated 2016/12/07 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
The failure to find evidence for elementary particles that could serve as the constituents of dark matter brings to mind suggestions that dark matter might consist of massive compact objects (MACHOs). In particular, it has recently been argued that MACHOs with masses > 15 M ⊙ may have been prolifically produced at the onset of the big bang. Although a variety of astrophysical signatures for primordial MACHOs with masses in this range have been discussed in the literature, we favor a strategy that uses the potential for magnification of stars outside our galaxy due to gravitational microlensing of these stars by MACHOs in the halo of our galaxy. We point out that the effect of the motion of the Earth on the shape of the micro-lensing brightening curves provides a promising approach to testing over the course of next several years the hypothesis that dark matter consists of massive compact objects.