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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1995

ROSAT observations of the luminous X-ray sources in M51

Our analysis of a 24 ks ROSAT Position Sensitive Proprtional Counter (PSPC) image of the interacting galaxies NGC 5194 (M51) and NGC 5195 shows that X-ray emission is distributed across the whole of NGC 5194. In addition to the diffuse emission and a bright nuclear region, eight individual sources were detected with 0.2-2.2 keV luminosities from 5 to 29 x 10(exp 38) ergs/s, more than 10 times higher than typical bright Galactic X-ray sources. The energy distribution of the luminous sources can be characterized by bremsstrahlung spectra with temperatures around 1 keV and low-energy absorption exceeding that expected from our Galaxy. Two sources lie in an inner spiral arm, while five lie along the outer edges of the outer spiral arms. Four sources (R1, R2, R4, R6) lie in or near regions of recent star formation as indicated by H II regions or CO emission from molecular clouds. However, for three of the X-ray sources which fall on the outer edge of the spiral arms (R3, R7, and R8), there is little or no associated CO or H alpha emission. We discuss the origin of the luminous X-ray sources as possibly arising from either massive black holes in binary star systems, supernova remnants, or hot gas associated with star forming regions.

Marston, A. P.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Periodicity significance testing with null-signal templates: reassessment of PTF’s SMBH binary candidates

Periodograms are widely employed for identifying periodicity in time series data, yet they often struggle to accurately quantify the statistical significance of detected periodic signals when the data complexity precludes reliable simulations. We develop a data-driven approach to address this challenge by introducing a null-signal template (NST). The NST is created by carefully randomizing the period of each cycle in the periodogram template, rendering it non-periodic. It has the same frequentist properties as a periodic signal template, and we show with simulations that the distribution of false positives is the same as with the original periodic template, regardless of the underlying data. Thus, performing a periodicity search with the NST acts as an effective simulation of the null (no-signal) hypothesis, without having to simulate the noise properties of the data. We apply the NST method to the supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHB) search in the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF), where Charisi et al. had previously proposed 33 high signal-to-noise candidates utilizing simulations to quantify their significance. Our approach reveals that these simulations do not capture the complexity of the real data. There are no statistically significant periodic signal detections above the non-periodic background. To improve the search sensitivity, we introduce a Gaussian quadrature based algorithm for the Bayes Factor with correlated noise as a test statistic. We show with simulations that this improves sensitivity to true signals by more than an order of magnitude. However, the Bayes Factor approach also results in no statistically significant detections in the PTF data.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS2021

Fitting Strategies of Accretion Column Models and Application to the Broadband Spectrum of Cen X-3

Due to the complexity of modeling the radiative transfer inside the accretion columns of neutron star binaries, their X-ray spectra are still commonly described with phenomenological models, e.g., a cut off power law. While the behavior of these models is well understood and they allow for a comparison of different sources and studying source behavior, the extent to which the underlying physics can be derived from the model parameters is very limited. During recent years, several physically motivated spectral models have been developed to overcome these limitations. Their application, however, is generally computationally much more expensive and they require a high number of parameters which are difficult to constrain. In particular, Becker & Wolff(2007) presented an analytical solution to the radiative transfer equation inside the accretion column assuming a velocity profile that is linear in the optical depth. An implementation of this model that is both fast and accurate enough to be fitted to observed spectra is available in XSPEC. The main difficulty of this implementation is that some solutions violate energy conservation and therefore have to be rejected by the user. We propose a novel fitting strategy that ensures energy conservation during theχ2-minimization which simplifies the application of the model considerably. We demonstrate this approach as well as a study of possible parameter degeneracies with a comprehensive Markov-Chain Monte Carlo analysis of the complete parameter space for a combined NuSTAR and Swift/XRT data-set of Cen X-3.The derived accretion-flow structure features a small column radius of∼63 m and a spectrum dominated by bulk-Comptonization of bremsstrahlung seed photons, in agreement with previous studies

Philipp Thalhammer↗
DOE OSTI2022

Improved Models of R Coronae Borealis Stars

We present an improved numerical method to model subsolar He+CO-WD merger progenitors of R Corona Borealis stars that builds on our previous work. These improvements include a smooth entropy transition from the core to the envelope of the post-merger, inclusion of single-zone nucleosynthesis to mimic the effects of burning during the merger event, and post-processing the models with a larger nuclear network for analysis of s-process nucleosynthesis. We perform a parameter study to understand the effects of the entropy transition, peak temperature, and overshooting on our models. The models that best agree with observations of R Corona Borealis stars are processed with a much larger nuclear network to investigate s-process nucleosynthesis and the dredge-up of s-process products into the outer envelope in detail. We present a model with a significant enhancement in s-process elements, which also agrees with observed surface abundances and isotopic ratios of 16 O/ 16 O and C/O between 1 and 10. Finally, we find that the neutron exposure and initial neutron densities this model requires to obtain such an enhancement are much more consistent with i-process nucleosynthesis.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Application of a deep learning semantic segmentation model to helium bubbles and voids in nuclear materials

Imaging nanoscale radiation-induced defects using the transmission electron microscope (TEM) is a key factor in the successful implementation of materials for nuclear energy structural applications. Analyzing each defect in a TEM micrograph is currently a manual task. To identify the defects in a single image can take anywhere from 15 min to an hour and a project can require the analysis of anywhere from tens to ≥ 100 images. Here, we use artificial intelligence (AI) models to automate this task. For simplification, we evaluated images with only a single type of defect; helium bubbles. Additionally, we performed semantic segmentation of these helium bubble defects in electron microscopy images of irradiated FeCrAl alloys using a deep learning DefectSegNet model. This model, which was previously used to classify crystal defects, is inspired by the classic DenseNet and U-Net image segmentation models. It claims high spatial resolution, but has poor performance at object boundaries. Our paper improves the DefectSegNet model’s application by adding two new features. First, the DefectSegNet model is applied not only to perform calculation pixel-wise but also object (or feature) wise. Because object-wise metrics are directly relevant to our final goal of detecting bubbles, whereas pixel-wise classification is only an intermediate step, it is an important part of our study. Second, a distance map loss (DML) function has been added to increase its performance at object boundaries. It is crucial to accurately represent defects boundaries, especially bubbles, in order to track the bubble-induced swelling caused by irradiation. The boundary-focused DML function is also compared to other loss functions like Cross-entropy, Weighted Binary Cross Entropy (WBCE), Dice and Intersection over Union (IOU). Finally, by incorporating new features, we found a marked improvement on segmentation quality and better shape preservation at the boundaries and areas of the bubbles.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRS2009

The Anomalous Low State of LMC X-3

Archival RXTE ASM and PCA observations of the black hole binary LMC X-3 reveal a dramatic and extended low state lasting from December 8, 2003 until March 18, 2004, unprecedented both in its Low luminosity (Lx(2-10keV)=4.2x 1035 ergs s-1, approximately 4 times fainter than ever before seen from LMC X-3 in its low/hard state, and representing 0.15% of its X-ray luminosity during the high/soft state); and Long duration (approximately equal to 100 days, as compared with 5-20 days for 'normal' low/hard state excursions). During this anomalous low state no significant variability is observed on timescales of days-weeks, and the spectrum is well described by a simple power law with index 1.7 plus or minus 0.2. We examine the variability characteristics of LMC X-3 before and after this event using conventional and topological methods, and show that with the exception of the anomalous low state itself the long-term behavior of the source in topological phase space can be completely described in terms of a well-understood nonlinear dynamics system known as the Duffing oscillator, implying that the accretion disk in LMC X-3 is a driven, dissipative system with two solutions competing for control of its time evolution. This work shows that dynamical information and constraints revealed by topological analysis methods can provide a valuable addition to traditional studies of accretion disk behavior.

Smale, A. P.↗
DOE OSTI2022

SDSS-IV MaNGA: Unveiling Galaxy Interaction by Merger Stages with Machine Learning

We use machine-learning techniques to classify galaxy merger stages, which can unveil physical processes that drive the star formation and active galactic nucleus (AGN) activities during galaxy interaction. The sample contains 4690 galaxies from the integral field spectroscopy survey SDSS-IV MaNGA and can be separated into 1060 merging galaxies and 3630 nonmerging or unclassified galaxies. For the merger sample, there are 468, 125, 293, and 174 galaxies (1) in the incoming pair phase, (2) in the first pericentric passage phase, (3) approaching or just passing the apocenter, and (4) in the final coalescence phase or post-mergers. With the information of projected separation, line-of-sight velocity difference, Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) gri images, and MaNGA Hα velocity map, we are able to classify the mergers and their stages with good precision, which is the most important score to identify interacting galaxies. For the two-phase classification (binary; nonmerger and merger), the performance can be high (precision > 0.90) with LGBMClassifier . We find that sample size can be increased by rotation, so the five-phase classification (nonmerger, and merger stages 1, 2, 3, and 4) can also be good (precision > 0.85). The most important features come from SDSS gri images. The contribution from the MaNGA Hα velocity map, projected separation, and line-of-sight velocity difference can further improve the performance by 0%–20%. In other words, the image and the velocity information are sufficient to capture important features of galaxy interactions, and our results can apply to all the MaNGA data, as well as future all-sky surveys.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS2002

Shadowgraph Study of Gradient Driven Fluctuations

A fluid or fluid mixture, subjected to a vertical temperature and/or concentration gradient in a gravitational field, exhibits greatly enhanced light scattering at small angles. This effect is caused by coupling between the vertical velocity fluctuations due to thermal energy and the vertically varying refractive index. Physically, small upward or downward moving regions will be displaced into fluid having a refractive index different from that of the moving region, thus giving rise to the enhanced scattering. The scattered intensity is predicted to vary with scattering wave vector q, as q(sup -4), for sufficiently large q, but the divergence is quenched by gravity at small q. In the absence of gravity, the long wavelength fluctuations responsible for the enhanced scattering are predicted to grow until limited by the sample dimensions. It is thus of interest to measure the mean-squared amplitude of such fluctuations in the microgravity environment for comparison with existing theory and ground based measurements. The relevant wave vectors are extremely small, making traditional low-angle light scattering difficult or impossible because of stray elastically scattered light generated by optical surfaces. An alternative technique is offered by the shadowgraph method, which is normally used to visualize fluid flows, but which can also serve as a quantitative tool to measure fluctuations. A somewhat novel shadowgraph apparatus and the necessary data analysis methods will be described. The apparatus uses a spatially coherent, but temporally incoherent, light source consisting of a super-luminescent diode coupled to a single-mode optical fiber in order to achieve extremely high spatial resolution, while avoiding effects caused by interference of light reflected from the various optical surfaces that are present when using laser sources. Results obtained for a critical mixture of aniline and cyclohexane subjected to a vertical temperature gradient will be presented. The sample was confined between two horizontal parallel sapphire plates with a vertical spacing of 1 mm. The temperatures of the sapphire plates were controlled by independent circulating water loops that used Peltier devices to add or remove heat from the room air as required. For a mixture with a temperature gradient, two effects are involved in generating the vertical refractive index gradient, namely thermal expansion and the Soret effect, which generates a concentration gradient in response to the applied temperature gradient. For the aniline/cyclohexane system, the denser component (aniline) migrates toward the colder surface. Consequently, when heating from above, both effects result in the sample density decreasing with altitude and are stabilizing in the sense that no convective motion occurs regardless of the magnitude of the applied temperature gradient. The Soret effect is strong near a binary liquid critical point, and thus the dominant effect is due to the induced concentration gradient. The results clearly show the divergence at low q and the predicted gravitational quenching. Results obtained for different applied temperature gradients at varying temperature differences from the critical temperature, clearly demonstrate the predicted divergence of the thermal diffusion ratio. Thus, the more closely the critical point is approached, the smaller becomes the temperature gradient required to generate the same signal. Two different methods have been used to generate pure concentration gradients. In the first, a sample cell was filled with a single fluid, ethylene glycol, and a denser miscible fluid, water, was added from below thus establishing a sharp interface to begin the experiment. As time went on the two fluids diffused into each other, and large amplitude fluctuations were clearly observed at low q. The effects of gravitational quenching were also evident. In the second method, the aniline/cyclohexane sample was used, and after applying a vertical temperature gradient for several hours, the top and bottom temperatures were set equal and the thermal gradient died on a time scale of seconds, leaving the Soret induced concentration gradient in place. Again, large-scale fluctuations were observed and died away slowly in amplitude as diffusion destroyed the initial concentration gradient.

Cannell, David↗
DOE OSTI2026

Spatially resolved polarization swings in the supermassive binary black hole candidate OJ 287 with first Event Horizon Telescope observations

We present the first Event Horizon Telescope 1.3 mm observations of the supermassive binary black hole candidate OJ 287. The observations achieved an unprecedented angular resolution of 18 μas and reveal significant structural and polarization variability over just five days, marking the shortest timescale on which such changes have been directly imaged in this source. The inner jet exhibits a twisted ridgeline structure, with features displaying apparent superluminal motions up to about 22 c. The linear polarization maps reveal three main polarized features whose electric-vector position angles (EVPAs) change substantially over the time span of our observations, including a component with a radial polarization consistent with being produced by a recollimation shock. Most notably, we directly resolved two innermost jet components whose EVPAs rotate in opposite directions. The faster component, moving at 2.4 ± 0.9 μas/day (17.4 ± 6.5 c), exhibits counterclockwise EVPA swings of roughly 3.7° per day, while the slower component, with a proper motion of 1.4 ± 0.3 μas/day (10.2 ± 2.2 c), rotates clockwise at approximately 2.5° per day. Previous studies inferred helical magnetic fields in AGN jets from time-resolved or integrated polarization variability but lacked the angular resolution to directly image this effect. Our results provide spatially resolved evidence that a helical magnetic field threads the jet’s collimation and acceleration zone, ruling out models based on the superposition of unresolved components. Our analysis suggests that propagating shocks interact with a Kelvin–Helmholtz plasma instability, illuminating different phases of the helical magnetic field and producing the observed polarization spatial and temporal variability. Moreover, our model naturally accounts for the more rapid polarization rotation observed in the faster moving component. Our model predicts even more rapid swings in polarization, which could be tested with future observations featuring a more densely sampled time coverage.

OJ 287↗
NASA NTRS2001

Robust Strategy for Rocket Engine Health Monitoring

Monitoring the health of rocket engine systems is essentially a two-phase process. The acquisition phase involves sensing physical conditions at selected locations, converting physical inputs to electrical signals, conditioning the signals as appropriate to establish scale or filter interference, and recording results in a form that is easy to interpret. The inference phase involves analysis of results from the acquisition phase, comparison of analysis results to established health measures, and assessment of health indications. A variety of analytical tools may be employed in the inference phase of health monitoring. These tools can be separated into three broad categories: statistical, rule based, and model based. Statistical methods can provide excellent comparative measures of engine operating health. They require well-characterized data from an ensemble of "typical" engines, or "golden" data from a specific test assumed to define the operating norm in order to establish reliable comparative measures. Statistical methods are generally suitable for real-time health monitoring because they do not deal with the physical complexities of engine operation. The utility of statistical methods in rocket engine health monitoring is hindered by practical limits on the quantity and quality of available data. This is due to the difficulty and high cost of data acquisition, the limited number of available test engines, and the problem of simulating flight conditions in ground test facilities. In addition, statistical methods incur a penalty for disregarding flow complexity and are therefore limited in their ability to define performance shift causality. Rule based methods infer the health state of the engine system based on comparison of individual measurements or combinations of measurements with defined health norms or rules. This does not mean that rule based methods are necessarily simple. Although binary yes-no health assessment can sometimes be established by relatively simple rules, the causality assignment needed for refined health monitoring often requires an exceptionally complex rule base involving complicated logical maps. Structuring the rule system to be clear and unambiguous can be difficult, and the expert input required to maintain a large logic network and associated rule base can be prohibitive.

Santi, L. Michael↗
NASA NTRS2016

Spectral and Temporal Properties of the Ultra-Luminous X-Ray Pulsar in M82 from 15 Years of Chandra Observations and Analysis of the Pulsed Emission Using NuSTAR

The recent discovery by Bachetti et al. of a pulsar in M82 that can reach luminosities of up to 10(exp 40) erg s(exp -1), a factor of approximately 100 times the Eddington luminosity for a 1.4 solar mass compact object, poses a challenge for accretion physics. In order to better understand the nature of this source and its duty cycle, and in light of several physical models that have been subsequently published, we conduct a spectral and temporal analysis of the 0.58 keV X-ray emission from this source from 15 years of Chandra observations. We analyze 19 ACIS observations where the point-spread function (PSF) of the pulsar is not contaminated by nearby sources. We fit the Chandra spectra of the pulsar with a power-law model and a disk blackbody model, subjected to interstellar absorption in M82. We carefully assess for the effect of pile-up in our observations, where four observations have a pile-up fraction of 10, which we account for during spectral modeling with a convolution model. When fitted with a power-law model, the average photon index when the source is at high luminosity (LX greater than 10(exp 39) erg s(exp -1) is equal to gamma 1.33 +/-.0.15. For the disk blackbody model, the average temperature is T(sub in) 3.24 +/- 0.65 keV, the spectral shape being consistent with other luminous X-ray pulsars. We also investigated the inclusion of a soft excess component and spectral break, finding that the spectra are also consistent with these features common to luminous X-ray pulsars. In addition, we present spectral analysis from NuSTAR over the 3-50 keV range where we have isolated the pulsed component. We find that the pulsed emission in this band is best fit by a power-law with a high-energy cutoff, where gamma is equal to 0.6 +/- 0.3 and E(sub C) is equal to 14(exp +5) (sub -3)) keV. While the pulsar has previously been identified as a transient, we find from our longer-baseline study that it has been remarkably active over the 15-year period, where for 9/19 (47%) observations that we analyzed, the pulsar appears to be emitting at a luminosity in excess of 10( exp (39) erg s (exp −1), greater than 10 times its Eddington limit.

individual (M82) - stars: neutron X rays; binaries↗
NASA NTRS2006

Ka-Band Wide-Bandgap Solid-State Power Amplifier: Prototype Combiner Spurious Mode Suppression and Power Constraints

Results of prototype hardware activities related to a 120-W, 32-GHz (Ka-band) solid-state power amplifier (SSPA) architecture study are presented. Spurious mode suppression and the power-handling capability of a prototype 24-way radial combiner and a prototype 2-way septum binary combiner were investigated. Experimental data indicate that a commercial absorptive filter, designed to pass the circular TE01 mode, effectively suppressed the higher-order modes generated by a narrowband, flower-petal-type mode transducer. However, the same filter was not effective in suppressing higher-order modes generated by the broadband Marie mode transducer that is used in the prototype waveguide radial combiner. Should greater filtering be required by a particular SSPA application, a broadband mode filter that can suppress specifically those higher-order modes that are generated by the Marie transducer will need to be developed. A back-to-back configuration of the prototype radial combiner was tested with drive power up to approximately 50 W. No anomalous behavior was observed. Power measurements of the septum combiner indicate that up to 10-W radio frequency (RF) can be dissipated in the integrated resistive element before a permanent performance shift is observed. Thus, a given adder (a single-stage, 2-way combiner) can safely combine two 20-W sources, and the adder will not be damaged in the event of a source failure. This result is used to calculate the maximum source power that can be safely combined as a function of the number of sources combined and the number of source failures allowed in a multi-stage combiner. The analysis shows that SSPA power >140 W can be generated by power combining 16 sources producing 10 W each. In this configuration, up to three sources could fail with the guarantee that the combiner would not be damaged. Finally, a modified prototype septum combiner design was verified. The improved design reduced the assembly time from over 2 hours to about 15 minutes per adder.

Khan, P.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Pulse profile modelling of thermonuclear burst oscillations − I. The effect of neglecting variability

ABSTRACT We study the effects of the time-variable properties of thermonuclear X-ray bursts on modelling their millisecond-period burst oscillations. We apply the pulse profile modelling technique that is being used in the analysis of rotation-powered millisecond pulsars by the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer to infer masses, radii, and geometric parameters of neutron stars. By simulating and analysing a large set of models, we show that overlooking burst time-scale variability in temperatures and sizes of the hot emitting regions can result in substantial bias in the inferred mass and radius. To adequately infer neutron star properties, it is essential to develop a model for the time-variable properties or invest a substantial amount of computational time in segmenting the data into non-varying pieces. We discuss prospects for constraints from proposed future X-ray telescopes.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS2014

NuSTAR Observations of the Magnetar 1E 2259+586

We report on new broad band spectral and temporal observations of the magnetar 1E 2259+586, which is located in the supernova remnant CTB 109. Our data were obtained simultaneously with the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and Swift, and cover the energy range from 0.5-79 keV. We present pulse profiles in various energy bands and compare them to previous RXTE results. The NuSTAR data show pulsations above 20 keV for the first time and we report evidence that one of the pulses in the double-peaked pulse profile shifts position with energy. The pulsed fraction of the magnetar is shown to increase strongly with energy. Our spectral analysis reveals that the soft X-ray spectrum is well characterized by an absorbed double blackbody or blackbody plus power-law model in agreement with previous reports. Our new hard X-ray data, however, suggest that an additional component, such as a power law, is needed to describe the NuSTAR and Swift spectrum. We also fit the data with the recently developed coronal outflow model by Beloborodov for hard X-ray emission from magnetars. The outflow from a ring on the magnetar surface is statistically preferred over outflow from a polar cap.

X-rays: individual↗
DOE OSTI2022

ROI-Finder : machine learning to guide region-of-interest scanning for X-ray fluorescence microscopy

The microscopy research at the Bionanoprobe (currently at beamline 9-ID and later 2-ID after APS-U) of Argonne National Laboratory focuses on applying synchrotron X-ray fluorescence (XRF) techniques to obtain trace elemental mappings of cryogenic biological samples to gain insights about their role in critical biological activities. The elemental mappings and the morphological aspects of the biological samples, in this instance, the bacterium Escherichia coli ( E. Coli ), also serve as label-free biological fingerprints to identify E. coli cells that have been treated differently. The key limitations of achieving good identification performance are the extraction of cells from raw XRF measurements via binary conversion, definition of features, noise floor and proportion of cells treated differently in the measurement. Automating cell extraction from raw XRF measurements across different types of chemical treatment and the implementation of machine-learning models to distinguish cells from the background and their differing treatments are described. Principal components are calculated from domain knowledge specific features and clustered to distinguish healthy and poisoned cells from the background without manual annotation. The cells are ranked via fuzzy clustering to recommend regions of interest for automated experimentation. The effects of dwell time and the amount of data required on the usability of the software are also discussed.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
NASA NTRS1992

Evaluation of RDBMS packages for use in astronomy

Tabular data sets arise in many areas of astronomical data analysis, from raw data (such as photon event lists) to final results (such as source catalogs). The Starlink catalog access and reporting package, SCAR, was originally developed to handle IRAS data and it has been the principal relational DBMS in the Starlink software collection for several years. But SCAR has many limitations and is VMS-specific, while Starlink is in transition from VMS to Unix. Rather than attempt a major re-write of SCAR for Unix, it seemed more sensible to see whether any existing database packages are suitable for general astronomical use. The authors first drew up a list of desirable properties for such a system and then used these criteria to evaluate a number of packages, both free ones and those commercially available. It is already clear that most commercial DBMS packages are not very well suited to the requirements; for example, most cannot carry out efficiently even fairly basic operations such as joining two catalogs on an approximate match of celestial positions. This paper reports the results of the evaluation exercise and notes the problems in using a standard DBMS package to process scientific data. In parallel with this the authors have started to develop a simple database engine that can handle tabular data in a range of common formats including simple direct-access files (such as SCAR and Exosat DBMS tables) and FITS tables (both ASCII and binary).

Page, C. G.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Spectroscopic Characterisation of Microlensing Events: Towards a New Interpretation of OGLE-2011-BLG-0417

The microlensing event OGLE-2011-BLG-0417 is an exceptionally bright lens binary that was predicted to present radial velocity variation at the level of several km s1. Pioneer radial velocity follow-up observations with the UVES spectrograph at the ESOVLT of this system clearly ruled out the large radial velocity variation, leaving a discrepancy between the observation and the prediction. In this paper, we further characterise the microlensing system by analysing its spectral energy distribution (SED) derived using the UVES spectrum and new observations with the ARCoIRIS (CTIO) near-infrared spectrograph and the Keck adaptive optics instrumentNIRC2 in the J, H, and Ks-bands. We determine the mass and distance of the stars independently from the microlensing modelling. We find that the SED is compatible with a giant star in the Galactic bulge and a foreground star with a mass of 0.94 +/- 0.09 M solar mass at a distance of 1.07 +/- 0.24 kpc. We find that this foreground star is likely the lens. Its parameters are not compatible with the onespreviously reported in the literature (0.52 +/- 0.04 M solar mass at 0.95 +/- 0.06 kpc), based on the microlensing light curve. A thoughtful reanalysis of the microlensing event is mandatory to fully understand the reason of this new discrepancy. More importantly, this paper demonstrates that spectroscopic follow-up observations of microlensing events are possible and provide independent constraints on the parameters of the lens and source stars, hence breaking some degeneracies in the analysis. UV-to-NIR low-resolution spectrographs like X-shooter (ESOVLT) could substantially contribute to this follow-up efforts, with magnitude limits above all microlensing events detected so far.

microlensing event OGLE-2011-BLG-0417↗