Combined Analysis of the Binary Lens Caustic‐crossing Event MACHO 98‐SMC‐1

Abstract

We fit the data for the binary lens microlensing event MACHO 98-SMC-1 from five different microlensing collaborations and find two distinct solutions characterized by binary separation d and mass ratio q: (d, q) = (0.54, 0.50) and (d, q) = (3.65, 0.36), where d is in units of the Einstein radius. However, the relative proper motion of the lens is very similar in the two solutions, 1.30 km s(-1) kpc(-1) and 1.48 km s(-1) kpc(-1), thus confirming that the lens is in the Small Magellanic Cloud. The close binary can be either rotating or approximately static but the wide binary must be rotating at close to its maximum allowed rate to be consistent with all the data. We measure limb-darkening coefficients for five bands ranging from I to V. As expected, these progressively decrease with rising wavelength. This is the first measurement of limb darkening for a metal-poor A star.