- Blaineau, T;
- Moniez, M;
- Afonso, C;
- Albert, J-N;
- Ansari, R;
- Aubourg, E;
- Coutures, C;
- Glicenstein, J-F;
- Goldman, B;
- Hamadache, C;
- Lasserre, T;
- Le Guillou, L;
- Lesquoy, E;
- Magneville, C;
- Marquette, J-B;
- Palanque-Delabrouille, N;
- Perdereau, O;
- Rich, J;
- Spiro, M;
- Tisserand, P
We searched for long-duration microlensing events originating from intermediate-mass black holes (BH) in the halo of the Milky Way, using archival data from the EROS-2 and MACHO photometric surveys towards the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). We combined data from these two surveys to create a common database of light curves for 14.1 million objects in the LMC, covering a total duration of 10.6 years, with flux series measured in four wide passbands. We carried out a microlensing search on these light curves, complemented by the light curves of 22.7 million objects, observed only by EROS-2 or only by MACHO, over about 7 years, with flux series measured in only two passbands. A likelihood analysis, taking into account the LMC self-lensing and Milky Way disk contributions, allows us to conclude that compact objects with masses in the range 10-100 M cannot make up more than ~15% of a standard halo total mass (at a 95% confidence level). Our analysis sensitivity weakens for heavier objects, although we still rule out the possibility of ~50% of the halo being made of ~1000 M BHs. Combined with previous EROS results, an upper limit of ~15% of the total halo mass can be obtained for the contribution of compact halo objects in the mass range 10-6-102 M.