Declining Rotation Curve and Brown Dwarf MACHOs

If the Galactic rotation speed at the solar circle is ~200 km s -1 or smaller, as is supported by several recent studies, the rotation curve of the Galaxy could be declining in the outermost region. Motivated by this, we investigate the effect of such a declining rotation curve on the estimate of the MACHO mass and the fractional contribution of the MACHOs to the Galactic dark halo. Using Hernquist and Plummer halo models instead of the standard halo model, we find that the MACHO mass could be significantly smaller than that for the standard halo case. In particular, there exists a certain set of halo parameters for which the MACHO mass is 0.1 M ☉ or less and at the same time the MACHO contribution to the total mass of the halo is almost 100%. This result indicates that a halo that consists solely of brown dwarfs can be consistent with both the observed microlensing properties and the constraints from the rotation curve, provided that the outer rotation curve is indeed declining.