Abstract
We describe a unique mass determination for a microlensing event from the second phase of the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment. The event, sc26_2218, which is very bright (baseline magnitude I = 15.10), appears to exhibit both and finite-source effects. The effect allows us to determine the projected Einstein radius on the observer plane (E ≈ 3.8 AU), while the finite-source effect allows us to determine the ratio of the angular source size and the angular Einstein radius. As the angular size of the star can be estimated using its color and magnitude, we can hence determine the angular Einstein radius θE ≈ 0.1 mas. By combining E and θE, we can determine the lens mass M ≈ 0.050M☉, independent of the source distance. The lens is therefore a brown dwarf candidate, located at a distance of ~6.5 kpc. However, the parallax signature is weak, and so we cannot completely discount the possibility that these signatures originate from binary rotation of the source (which would prevent any estimate of the lens mass) rather than parallax. However, this can be tested by future spectroscopic observations. This event highlights the scientific returns for intense monitoring of bright microlensing events, since the and finite-source effects can be more easily identified because of their high signal-to-noise ratios.
Published Version
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