Completing the MEGA Survey of Microlensing in M31

完成m31微透镜的MEGA调查[j]。哥伦比亚大学的Arlin Crotts将利用这笔奖金完成对M31恒星的“MEGA”引力微透镜调查的分析。PI的团队已经为这个项目构建了主要的硬件，几乎完成了总计约350天的观测，开发了软件，并开始分析数据。到目前为止，已经发现了许多可能的微透镜事件，并且该小组已经开发出了区分变星和微透镜事件的技术。这项工作对天文研究界的更广泛影响将源于微透镜调查的副产品——变星数据的存在。此外，PI将使用于数据分析的图像减法包可用于一般分发。该分析技术在产生更灵敏的小肿瘤ct扫描检测方面的潜在医学应用也已被确定，使这项工作具有多学科影响。

Completing the MEGA Survey of Microlensing in M31ABSTRACTAST 0406970 CrottsDr. Arlin Crotts, at Columbia University, will use this award to complete the analysis of the "MEGA" gravitational microlensing survey of stars in M31. The PI's group has constructed the major hardware for the project, nearly completed observations totaling roughly 350 nights, developed software, and begun the analysis of the data. To-date, a number of likely microlensing events have been found, and the group has developed techniques to distinguish variable stars from microlensing events. Broader impact of this work to the astronomical research community will result from the existence of data on variable stars that are the byproduct of the microlensing survey. Additionally, the PI will make the image subtraction package, used in the data analysis, available for general distribution. A potential medical application of the analysis technique in producing more sensitive CT-scan detections of small tumors has also been identified, giving this work a multidisciplinary impact.