Context. Not only is gravitational microlensing a successful tool for discovering distant exoplanets, but it also enables characterization of the lens and source stars involved in the lensing event. Aims: In high-magnification events, the lens caustic may cross over the source disk, which allows determination of the angular size of the source and measurement of its limb darkening. Methods: When such extended-source effects appear close to maximum magnification, the resulting light curve differs from the characteristic Paczyński point-source curve. The exact shape of the light curve close to the peak depends on the limb darkening of the source. Dense photometric coverage permits measurement of the respective limb-darkening coefficients. Results: In the case of the microlensing event OGLE 2008-BLG-290, the K giant source star reached a peak magnification at about 100. Thirteen different telescopes have covered this event in eight different photometric bands. Subsequent light-curve analysis yielded measurements of linear limb-darkening coefficients of the source in six photometric bands. The best-measured coefficients lead to an estimate of the source effective temperature of about 4700+100-200 K. However, the photometric estimate from colour-magnitude diagrams favours a cooler temperature of 4200 ± 100 K. Conclusions: Because the limb-darkening measurements, at least in the CTIO/SMARTS2 V_s- and I_s-bands, are among the most accurate obtained, the above disagreement needs to be understood. A solution is proposed, which may apply to previous events where such a discrepancy also appeared.

OGLE 2008-BLG-290: an accurate measurement of the limb darkening of a galactic bulge K Giant spatially resolved by microlensing

CALCHI NOVATI, Sebastiano;BOZZA, Valerio;MANCINI, Luigi;SCARPETTA, Gaetano;
2010-01-01

Abstract

Context. Not only is gravitational microlensing a successful tool for discovering distant exoplanets, but it also enables characterization of the lens and source stars involved in the lensing event. Aims: In high-magnification events, the lens caustic may cross over the source disk, which allows determination of the angular size of the source and measurement of its limb darkening. Methods: When such extended-source effects appear close to maximum magnification, the resulting light curve differs from the characteristic Paczyński point-source curve. The exact shape of the light curve close to the peak depends on the limb darkening of the source. Dense photometric coverage permits measurement of the respective limb-darkening coefficients. Results: In the case of the microlensing event OGLE 2008-BLG-290, the K giant source star reached a peak magnification at about 100. Thirteen different telescopes have covered this event in eight different photometric bands. Subsequent light-curve analysis yielded measurements of linear limb-darkening coefficients of the source in six photometric bands. The best-measured coefficients lead to an estimate of the source effective temperature of about 4700+100-200 K. However, the photometric estimate from colour-magnitude diagrams favours a cooler temperature of 4200 ± 100 K. Conclusions: Because the limb-darkening measurements, at least in the CTIO/SMARTS2 V_s- and I_s-bands, are among the most accurate obtained, the above disagreement needs to be understood. A solution is proposed, which may apply to previous events where such a discrepancy also appeared.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11386/3017742
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