THE END OF THE MACHO ERA: LIMITS ON HALO DARK MATTER FROM STELLAR HALO WIDE BINARIES

We simulate the evolution of halo wide binaries in the presence of the massive compact halo objects (MACHOs) and compare our results to the sample of wide binaries in a companion paper. The observed distribution is well fitted by a single power law for angular separations, 35 43 M☉ at the standard local halo density ρH. This all but removes the last permitted window for a full MACHO halo for masses M > 10-7.5 M☉.