Title: A new direction for dark matter research: intermediate mass compact halo objects Show Chinese title

Title: 暗物质研究的新方向：中等质量致密晕天体

Abstract: The failure to find evidence for elementary particles that could serve as the constituents of dark matter brings to mind suggestions that dark matter might consist of massive compact objects (MACHOs). In particular, it has recently been argued that MACHOs with masses > 15 solar masses may have been prolifically produced at the onset of the big bang. Although a variety of astrophysical signatures for primordial MACHOs with masses in this range have been discussed in the literature, we favor a strategy that uses the potential for gravitational microlensing of stars outside our galaxy to directly detect the presence of MACHOs in the halo of our galaxy. We point out that the effect of the motion of the Earth on the shape of the microlensing brightening curves provides a promising approach to confirming over the course of next several years that dark matter consists of MACHOs. Show Chinese abstract

Abstract: 未能找到可作为暗物质组成部分的基本粒子的证据，让人联想到暗物质可能由大质量致密天体（MACHOs）组成。 特别是，最近有人提出，质量大于15个太阳质量的MACHOs可能在大爆炸开始时大量产生。 尽管文献中讨论了这一质量范围的原初MACHOs的各种天体物理特征，但我们倾向于使用银河系晕中MACHOs对银河系外恒星引力微透镜效应的潜力，以直接检测MACHOs的存在。 我们指出，地球运动对微透镜增亮曲线形状的影响提供了一种有希望的方法，在未来几年内确认暗物质由MACHOs组成。