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2.4 Microlensing Results

The recent results from the micro-lensing surveys have led to the construction of new Galactic mass models, with emphasis on their capability to predict the microlensing rate. The results from several years of the MACHO survey (Alcock et al. 1997), combined with the EROS results (Renault et al. 1998), leave little room for compact objects in the galactic halo with masses in the range of 10-7 to 10-3 Msmsun (cf. Alcock et al. 1998). The most likely mass of the handful events detected in the direction of the Large Magellanic Cloud is about 0.5 Msmsun, which leads to a debate about the real location of the objects giving rise to the lensing phenomenon : they could belong to an outlying tidal streamer of the LMC (cf. Zhao 1998). Analysis of mass models taking into account a number of dynamical contraints leads to the result that only a fraction of the mass in the dark halo of the Galaxy could be made up by MACHO's (cf. Alcock et al. 1998).