Microlensing Optical Depth toward the Galactic Bulge Using Clump Giants from the MACHO Survey

Using 7 yr of MACHO survey data, we present a new determination of the optical depth to microlensing toward the Galactic bulge. We select the sample of 62 microlensing events (60 unique) on clump giant sources and perform a detailed efficiency analysis. We use only the clump giant sources because these are bright bulge stars and are not as strongly affected by blending as other events. Using a subsample of 42 clump events concentrated in an …