OGLE-2013-BLG-0578L: Microlensing Binary Composed of A Brown Dwarf And An M Dwarf

H. Park, A. Udalski, C. Han, R. Poleski, J. Skowron, S. Kozłowski, Ł. Wyrzykowski, M. K. Szymański, P. Pietrukowicz, G. Pietrzyński, I. Soszyński, K. Ulaczyk

Published 2015-03-11Version 1

Determining physical parameters of binary microlenses is hampered by the lack of information about the angular Einstein radius due to the difficulty of resolving caustic crossings. In this paper, we present the analysis of the binary microlensing event OGLE-2013-BLG-0578, for which the caustic exit was precisely predicted in advance from real-time analysis, enabling to densely resolve the caustic crossing and to measure the Einstein radius. From the mass measurement of the lens system based on the Einstein radius combined with the additional information about the lens parallax, we identify that the lens is a binary that is composed of a late-type M-dwarf primary and a substellar brown-dwarf companion. The event demonstrates the capability of current real-time microlensing modeling and the usefulness of microlensing in detecting and characterizing faint or dark objects in the Galaxy.