Polarisation as a Tool for Gravitational Microlensing Surveys

Abstract

Much interest has been generated recently by the ongoing MACHO, EROS and OGLE projects to identify gravitationally lensed stars from the Large Magellanic Cloud and Galactic bulge, and the positive identification of several events (Alcock et al, (1993), Aubourg et al, (1993) and Udalski et al, (1993)). The rate at which such events are found should provide considerable information about the distribution of the low mass compact objects, brown dwarfs etc. responsible for the lensing, and their relative importance as a component of the cosmological `dark matter'. We show measurement of the polarisation of starlight during these events can yield considerably more information about the lensing objects than was previously considered possible. Furthermore, the consideration of extended sources is shown to have a significant effect on the interpretation of the profiles and statistics of the events.