Cross-Matching of OGLE, GAIA, and Hubble Catalogs: Evaluating the Probability of Resolving Lens Stars in Microlensing Events

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the probability of resolving lens stars in microlensing events by cross-matching catalogs and simulating angular separations, concluding that current telescopes have low chances but high-resolution instruments could succeed.

Contribution

It introduces a Monte Carlo simulation approach to assess the feasibility of resolving lens stars in microlensing events using existing and future high-resolution telescopes.

Findings

Only 0.029% of events have separations >50 mas.

Current telescopes like OGLE and GAIA are unlikely to resolve lens stars.

High-resolution instruments could potentially observe the phenomenon.

Abstract

This study commenced by cross-matching data from the GAIA and OGLE telescopes with the aim of resolving the source star, long after microlensing is finished. The aim is breaking degeneracy between parameters of the microlensing equation, and ultimately calculating the mass of lens. We have examined different catalogs and found no evidence. Subsequently, employing the Monte Carlo method and guided by sensible assumptions, we embarked a simulation to discern the distribution of angular separation and to probe the feasibility of detecting this phenomenon. The results revealed that a mere 0.029% of gravitational microlensing events exhibited separations exceeding 50 milliarcseconds. Consequently, the likelihood of observing this phenomenon utilizing the OGLE and GAIA telescopes appears exceedingly far available. However, it is worth noting that instruments with very high angular resolution in the range of several tens of milliarcseconds present a viable avenue for such observations. Finally, we proposed 60 microlensing events for which the observation of separation is more probable based on the measured proper velocity.