Instruct: Identify the main and secondary category of Arxiv papers based on the titles and abstracts
Query: Testing LMC Microlensing Scenarios: The Discrimination Power of the
  SuperMACHO Microlensing Survey   Characterizing the nature and spatial distribution of the lensing objects
that produce the previously measured microlensing optical depth toward the
Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) remains an open problem. We present an appraisal
of the ability of the SuperMACHO Project, a next-generation microlensing survey
directed toward the LMC, to discriminate between various proposed lensing
populations. We consider two scenarios: lensing by a uniform foreground screen
of objects and self-lensing by LMC stars. We have carried out extensive
simulations, based upon data obtained during the first year of the project, to
assess the SuperMACHO survey's ability to discriminate between these two
scenarios. We find that the event rate itself shows significant sensitivity to
the choice of the LMC luminosity function, limiting the conclusions which can
be drawn from the absolute rate. If instead we determine the differential event
rate across the LMC, we will decrease the impact of these systematic biases and
render our conclusions more robust. With this approach the SuperMACHO Project
should be able to distinguish between the two categories of lens populations.
This will provide important constraints on the nature of the lensing objects
and their contributions to the Galactic dark matter halo.

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The categories of this paper are: atom-ph
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The categories of this paper are: ao-sci
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The categories of this paper are: q-alg
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The categories of this paper are: stat
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The categories of this paper are: patt-sol
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The categories of this paper are: cmp-lg
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The categories of this paper are: cs
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The categories of this paper are: mtrl-th
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The categories of this paper are: quant-ph
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The categories of this paper are: chao-dyn
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The categories of this paper are: nucl-th
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The categories of this paper are: supr-con
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The categories of this paper are: math
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The categories of this paper are: hep-ex
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The categories of this paper are: dg-ga
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The categories of this paper are: gr-qc