338 research outputs found
Interferometric Visibility and Closure Phase of Microlensing Events with Finite Source Size
Interferometers from the ground and space will be able to resolve the two
images in a microlensing event. This will at least partially lift the inherent
degeneracy between physical parameters in microlensing events. To increase the
signal-to-noise ratio, intrinsically bright events with large magnifications
will be preferentially selected as targets. These events may be influenced by
finite source size effects both photometrically and astrometrically. Using
observed finite source size events as examples, we show that the fringe
visibility can be affected by 5% - 10%, and the closure phase by a few degrees:
readily detectable by ground and space interferometers. Such detections will
offer unique information about the lens-source trajectory relative to the
baseline of the interferometers. Combined with photometric finite source size
effects, interferometry offers a way to measure the angular sizes of the source
and the Einstein radius accurately.
Limb-darkening changes the visibility by a small amount compared with a
source with uniform surface brightness, marginally detectable with ground-based
instruments.
We discuss the implications of our results for the plans to make
interferometric observations of future microlensing events.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures, submitted to MNRA
Faint-source-star planetary microlensing: the discovery of the cold gas-giant planet OGLE-2014-BLG-0676Lb
We report the discovery of a planet – OGLE-2014-BLG-0676Lb– via gravitational microlensing. Observations for the lensing event were made by the following groups: Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics; Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment; Wise Observatory; RoboNET/Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope; Microlensing Network for the Detection of Small Terrestrial Exoplanets; and μ-FUN. All analyses of the light-curve data favour a lens system comprising a planetary mass orbiting a host star. The most-favoured binary lens model has a mass ratio between the two lens masses of (4.78 ± 0.13) × 10−3. Subject to some important assumptions, a Bayesian probability density analysis suggests the lens system comprises a
3.09^(+1.02)_(−1.12) MJ planet orbiting a 0.62^(+0.20)_(−0.22) M_⊙ host star at a deprojected orbital separation of
4.40^(+2.16)_(−1.46) au. The distance to the lens system is
2.22^(+0.96)_(−0.83) kpc. Planet OGLE-2014-BLG-0676Lb provides additional data to the growing number of cool planets discovered using gravitational microlensing against which planetary formation theories may be tested. Most of the light in the baseline of this event is expected to come from the lens and thus high-resolution imaging observations could confirm our planetary model interpretation
A New Photometric Model of the Galactic Bar using Red Clump Giants
We present a study of the luminosity density distribution of the Galactic bar
using number counts of red clump giants (RCGs) from the OGLE-III survey. The
data were recently published by Nataf et al. (2013) for 9019 fields towards the
bulge and have RC stars over a viewing area of . The data include the number counts, mean distance modulus
(), dispersion in and full error matrix, from which we fit the data
with several tri-axial parametric models. We use the Markov Chain Monte Carlo
(MCMC) method to explore the parameter space and find that the best-fit model
is the model, with the distance to the GC is 8.13 kpc, the ratio of
semi-major and semi-minor bar axis scale lengths in the Galactic plane
, and vertical bar scale length , is (close to being prolate). The scale length of the stellar
density profile along the bar's major axis is 0.67 kpc and has an angle
of , slightly larger than the value obtained from a similar study
based on OGLE-II data. The number of estimated RC stars within the field of
view is , which is systematically lower than the observed
value. We subtract the smooth parametric model from the observed counts and
find that the residuals are consistent with the presence of an X-shaped
structure in the Galactic centre, the excess to the estimated mass content is
. We estimate the total mass of the bar is . Our results can be used as a key ingredient to construct new density
models of the Milky Way and will have implications on the predictions of the
optical depth to gravitational microlensing and the patterns of hydrodynamical
gas flow in the Milky Way.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, 4 tables. MNRAS accepte
Planetary Microlensing at High Magnification
Simulations of planetary microlensing at high magnification that were carried
out on a cluster computer are presented. It was found that the perturbations
due to two-thirds of all planets occur in the time interval [-0.5t_FWHM, 0.5t_
FWHM] with respect to the peak of the microlensing light curve, where t_FWHM is
typically about 14 hours. This implies that only this restricted portion of the
light curve need be intensively monitored for planets, a very significant
practical advantage. Nearly all planetary detections in high magnification
events will not involve caustic crossings. We discuss the issues involved in
determining the planetary parameters in high magnification microlensing events.
Earth mass planets may be detected with 1-m class telescopes if their projected
orbital radii lie within about 1.5 - 2.5 AU. Giant planets are detectable over
a much larger region. For multi-planet systems the perturbations due to
individual planets can be separated under certain conditions. The size of the
source star needs to be determined independently, but the presence of spots on
the source star is likely to be negligible, as is the effect of planetary
motion during an event.Comment: 12 pages, 13 embedded figures, accepted for publication by MNRA
ExELS: an exoplanet legacy science proposal for the ESA Euclid mission. II. Hot exoplanets and sub-stellar systems
The Exoplanet Euclid Legacy Survey (ExELS) proposes to determine the
frequency of cold exoplanets down to Earth mass from host separations of ~1 AU
out to the free-floating regime by detecting microlensing events in Galactic
Bulge. We show that ExELS can also detect large numbers of hot, transiting
exoplanets in the same population. The combined microlensing+transit survey
would allow the first self-consistent estimate of the relative frequencies of
hot and cold sub-stellar companions, reducing biases in comparing "near-field"
radial velocity and transiting exoplanets with "far-field" microlensing
exoplanets. The age of the Bulge and its spread in metallicity further allows
ExELS to better constrain both the variation of companion frequency with
metallicity and statistically explore the strength of star-planet tides.
We conservatively estimate that ExELS will detect ~4100 sub-stellar objects,
with sensitivity typically reaching down to Neptune-mass planets. Of these,
~600 will be detectable in both Euclid's VIS (optical) channel and NISP H-band
imager, with ~90% of detections being hot Jupiters. Likely scenarios predict a
range of 2900-7000 for VIS and 400-1600 for H-band. Twice as many can be
expected in VIS if the cadence can be increased to match the 20-minute H-band
cadence. The separation of planets from brown dwarfs via Doppler boosting or
ellipsoidal variability will be possible in a handful of cases. Radial velocity
confirmation should be possible in some cases, using 30-metre-class telescopes.
We expect secondary eclipses, and reflection and emission from planets to be
detectable in up to ~100 systems in both VIS and NISP-H. Transits of ~500
planetary-radius companions will be characterised with two-colour photometry
and ~40 with four-colour photometry (VIS,YJH), and the albedo of (and emission
from) a large sample of hot Jupiters in the H-band can be explored
statistically.Comment: 18 pages, 16 figures, accepted MNRA
Improving the Prospects for Detecting Extrasolar Planets in Gravitational Microlensing in 2002
Gravitational microlensing events of high magnification have been shown to be
promising targets for detecting extrasolar planets. However, only a few events
of high magnification have been found using conventional survey techniques.
Here we demonstrate that high magnification events can be readily found in
microlensing surveys using a strategy that combines high frequency sampling of
target fields with online difference imaging analysis. We present 10
microlensing events with peak magnifications greater than 40 that were detected
in real-time towards the Galactic Bulge during 2001 by MOA. We show that Earth
mass planets can be detected in future events such as these through intensive
follow-up observations around the event peaks. We report this result with
urgency as a similar number of such events are expected in 2002.Comment: 11 pages, 3 embedded ps figures including 2 colour, revised version
accepted by MNRA
ExELS: an exoplanet legacy science proposal for the ESA Euclid mission. II. Hot exoplanets and sub-stellar systems
The Exoplanet Euclid Legacy Survey (ExELS) proposes to determine the
frequency of cold exoplanets down to Earth mass from host separations of ~1 AU
out to the free-floating regime by detecting microlensing events in Galactic
Bulge. We show that ExELS can also detect large numbers of hot, transiting
exoplanets in the same population. The combined microlensing+transit survey
would allow the first self-consistent estimate of the relative frequencies of
hot and cold sub-stellar companions, reducing biases in comparing "near-field"
radial velocity and transiting exoplanets with "far-field" microlensing
exoplanets. The age of the Bulge and its spread in metallicity further allows
ExELS to better constrain both the variation of companion frequency with
metallicity and statistically explore the strength of star-planet tides.
We conservatively estimate that ExELS will detect ~4100 sub-stellar objects,
with sensitivity typically reaching down to Neptune-mass planets. Of these,
~600 will be detectable in both Euclid's VIS (optical) channel and NISP H-band
imager, with ~90% of detections being hot Jupiters. Likely scenarios predict a
range of 2900-7000 for VIS and 400-1600 for H-band. Twice as many can be
expected in VIS if the cadence can be increased to match the 20-minute H-band
cadence. The separation of planets from brown dwarfs via Doppler boosting or
ellipsoidal variability will be possible in a handful of cases. Radial velocity
confirmation should be possible in some cases, using 30-metre-class telescopes.
We expect secondary eclipses, and reflection and emission from planets to be
detectable in up to ~100 systems in both VIS and NISP-H. Transits of ~500
planetary-radius companions will be characterised with two-colour photometry
and ~40 with four-colour photometry (VIS,YJH), and the albedo of (and emission
from) a large sample of hot Jupiters in the H-band can be explored
statistically.Comment: 18 pages, 16 figures, accepted MNRA
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