Lens binarity vs limb darkening in close-impact galactic microlensing events

Abstract

Although point caustics harbour a larger potential for measuring the brightness profile of stars during the course of a microlensing event than (line-shaped) fold caustics, the effect of lens binarity significantly limits the achievable accuracy. Therefore, corresponding close-impact events make a less favourable case for limb-darkening measurements than those events that involve fold-caustic passages, from which precision measurements can easily and routinely be obtained. Examples involving later Bulge giants indicate that a ~ 10 % misestimate on the limb-darkening coefficient can result with the assumption of a single-lens model that looks acceptable, unless the precision of the photometric measurements is pushed below the 1 %-level even for these favourable targets. In contrast, measurement uncertainties on the proper motion between lens and source are dominated by the assessment of the angular radius of the source star and remain practically unaffected by lens binarity. Rather than judging the goodness-of-fit by means of a chi^2 test only, run tests provide useful additional information that can lead to the rejection of models and the detection of lens binarity in close-impact microlensing events.