The gravitational microlensing technique allows the discovery of exoplanets around stars distributed in the disk of the galaxy towards the bulge. The alignment of two stars that led to the discovery is unique over the timescale of a human life, however, and cannot be re-observed. Moreover, the target host is often very faint and located in a crowded region. These difficulties hamper and often make impossible the follow up of the target and study of its possible companions. A radial-velocity curve was predicted for the binary system, OGLE-2011-BLG-0417, discovered and characterised from a microlensing event. We used the UVES spectrograph mounted at the VLT, ESO to derive precise radial-velocity measurements of OGLE-2011-BLG-0417. To gather high-precision radial velocities on faint targets of microlensing events, we proposed to use the source star as a reference to measure the lens radial velocities. We obtained ten radial velocities on the putative V = 18 lens with a dispersion of ∼100 m s −1 , spread over one year. Our measurements do not confirm the microlensing prediction for this binary system. The most likely scenario is that the putative V = 18 mag lens is actually a blend and not the primary lens which is 2 mag fainter. Further observations and analyses are needed to understand the microlensing observation and infer on the nature and characteristics of the lens itself.

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We continue the development of the in-house molecular dynamics software package SpaCIAL and test it for the computation of the collision-induced absorption coefficients for a neon (Ne) and krypton (Kr) gas mixture. An apodization procedure for the dipole autocorrelation function is implemented and tested. We also carry out a statistical study of the convergence rate with respect to ensemble size. The resulting absorption coefficients show a good accordance with quantum mechanical results. Comparison with laboratory measurements shows agreement within 10%–20% at T = 295 K. At T = 480 K, a larger difference of 40%–80% is observed, which can presumably be explained by experimental uncertainties. For the study, an empirical (Barker, Fisher, and Watts) interaction-potential [Mol. Phys. 21, 657 (1971)] for Ne–Kr has been developed. Ab initio {coupled cluster with singles and doubles (triples) [CCSD(T)]} potentials for Ne–Ne, Kr–Kr, and Ne–Kr have been computed, as well as the CCSD(T) interaction-induced Ne–Kr dipole moment curve.

We have implemented a scheme for classical molecular dynamics simulations of collision-induced absorption. The program has been applied to a gas mixture of argon (Ar) and krypton (Kr). The simulations are compared with accurate quantum dynamical calculations. The comparisons of the absorption coefficients show that classical molecular dynamics is correct within 10% for photon wave numbers up to 220 cm−1 at a temperature of 200 K for this system. At higher temperatures, the agreement is even better. Molecular dynamics accounts for many-body interactions, which, for example, give rise to continuous dimer formation and destruction in the gas. In this way, the method has an advantage compared with bimolecular classical (trajectory) treatments. The calculations are carried out with a new empirical Ar–Kr pair potential. This has been obtained through extensive analysis of experimental thermophysical and transport properties. We also present a new high level ab initio Ar–Kr potential curve for comparison, as well as ab initio interaction-induced dipole curves computed with different methods. In addition, the Ar–Kr polarizability and hyperpolarizability are reported. A comparison of the computed absorption spectra with an experiment taken at 300 K shows satisfactory agreement although a difference in absolute magnitude of 10%–15% persists. This discrepancy we attribute mainly to experimental uncertainty.