No Arabic abstract
We investigate constraints on additional planets orbiting the distant M-dwarf star OGLE-2005-BLG-390L, around which photometric microlensing data has revealed the existence of the sub-Neptune-mass planet OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb. We specifically aim to study potential Jovian companions and compare our findings with predictions from core-accretion and disc-instability models of planet formation. We also obtain an estimate of the detection probability for sub-Neptune mass planets similar to OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb using a simplified simulation of a microlensing experiment. We compute the efficiency of our photometric data for detecting additional planets around OGLE-2005-BLG-390L, as a function of the microlensing model parameters and convert it into a function of the orbital axis and planet mass by means of an adopted model of the Milky Way. We find that more than 50 % of potential planets with a mass in excess of 1 M_J between 1.1 and 2.3 AU around OGLE-2005-BLG-390L would have revealed their existence, whereas for gas giants above 3 M_J in orbits between 1.5 and 2.2 AU, the detection efficiency reaches 70 %; however, no such companion was observed. Our photometric microlensing data therefore do not contradict the existence of gas giant planets at any separation orbiting OGLE-2005-BLG-390L. Furthermore we find a detection probability for an OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb-like planet of around 2-5 %. In agreement with current planet formation theories, this quantitatively supports the prediction that sub-Neptune mass planets are common around low-mass stars.
We analyze the extreme high-magnification microlensing event OGLE-2008-BLG-279, which peaked at a maximum magnification of A ~ 1600 on 30 May 2008. The peak of this event exhibits both finite-source effects and terrestrial parallax, from which we determine the mass of the lens, M_l=0.64 +/- 0.10 M_Sun, and its distance, D_l = 4.0 +/- 0.6. We rule out Jupiter-mass planetary companions to the lens star for projected separations in the range 0.5-20 AU. More generally, we find that this event was sensitive to planets with masses as small as 0.2 M_Earth ~= 2 M_Mars with projected separations near the Einstein ring (~3 AU).
We combine all available information to constrain the nature of OGLE-2005-BLG-071Lb, the second planet discovered by microlensing and the first in a high-magnification event. These include photometric and astrometric measurements from Hubble Space Telescope, as well as constraints from higher order effects extracted from the ground-based light curve, such as microlens parallax, planetary orbital motion and finite-source effects. Our primary analysis leads to the conclusion that the host of Jovian planet OGLE-2005-BLG-071Lb is an M dwarf in the foreground disk with mass M= 0.46 +/- 0.04 Msun, distance D_l = 3.3 +/- 0.4 kpc, and thick-disk kinematics v_LSR ~ 103 km/s. From the best-fit model, the planet has mass M_p = 3.8 +/- 0.4 M_Jup, lies at a projected separation r_perp = 3.6 +/- 0.2 AU from its host and so has an equilibrium temperature of T ~ 55 K, i.e., similar to Neptune. A degenerate model less favored by Deltachi^2 = 2.1 (or 2.2, depending on the sign of the impact parameter) gives similar planetary mass M_p = 3.4 +/- 0.4 M_Jup with a smaller projected separation, r_perp = 2.1 +/- 0.1 AU, and higher equilibrium temperature T ~ 71 K. These results from the primary analysis suggest that OGLE-2005-BLG-071Lb is likely to be the most massive planet yet discovered that is hosted by an M dwarf. However, the formation of such high-mass planetary companions in the outer regions of M-dwarf planetary systems is predicted to be unlikely within the core-accretion scenario. There are a number of caveats to this primary analysis, which assumes (based on real but limited evidence) that the unlensed light coincident with the source is actually due to the lens, that is, the planetary host. However, these caveats could mostly be resolved by a single astrometric measurement a few years after the event.
We present observations of microlensing event MACHO-98-BLG-35 which reached a peak magnification factor of almost 80. These observations by the Microlensing Planet Search (MPS) and the MOA Collaborations place strong constraints on the possible planetary system of the lens star and show intriguing evidence for a low mass planet with a mass fraction $4times 10^{-5} leq epsilon leq 2times 10^{-4}$. A giant planet with $epsilon = 10^{-3}$ is excluded from 95% of the region between 0.4 and 2.5 $R_E$ from the lens star, where $R_E$ is the Einstein ring radius of the lens. This exclusion region is more extensive than the generic lensing zone which is $0.6 - 1.6 R_E$. For smaller mass planets, we can exclude 57% of the lensing zone for $epsilon = 10^{-4}$ and 14% of the lensing zone for $epsilon = 10^{-5}$. The mass fraction $epsilon = 10^{-5}$ corresponds to an Earth mass planet for a lensing star of mass $sim 0.3 msun$. A number of similar events will provide statistically significant constraints on the prevalence of Earth mass planets. In order to put our limits in more familiar terms, we have compared our results to those expected for a Solar System clone averaging over possible lens system distances and orientations. We find that such a system is ruled out at the 90% confidence level. A copy of the Solar System with Jupiter replaced by a second Saturn mass planet can be ruled out at 70% confidence. Our low mass planetary signal (few Earth masses to Neptune mass) is significant at the $4.5sigma$ confidence level. If this planetary interpretation is correct, the MACHO-98-BLG-35 lens system constitutes the first detection of a low mass planet orbiting an ordinary star without gas giant planets.
We report the discovery of a several-Jupiter mass planetary companion to the primary lens star in microlensing event OGLE-2005-BLG-071. Precise (<1%) photometry at the peak of the event yields an extremely high signal-to-noise ratio detection of a deviation from the light curve expected from an isolated lens. The planetary character of this deviation is easily and unambiguously discernible from the gross features of the light curve. Detailed modeling yields a tightly-constrained planet-star mass ratio of q=m_p/M=0.0071+/-0.0003. This is the second robust detection of a planet with microlensing, demonstrating that the technique itself is viable and that planets are not rare in the systems probed by microlensing, which typically lie several kpc toward the Galactic center.
We present Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) observations of the source and lens stars for planetary microlensing event OGLE-2005-BLG-169, which confirm the relative proper motion prediction due to the planetary light curve signal observed for this event. This (and the companion Keck result) provide the first confirmation of a planetary microlensing signal, for which the deviation was only 2%. The follow-up observations determine the flux of the planetary host star in multiple passbands and remove light curve model ambiguity caused by sparse sampling of part of the light curve. This leads to a precise determination of the properties of the OGLE-2005-BLG-169Lb planetary system. Combining the constraints from the microlensing light curve with the photometry and astrometry of the HST/WFC3 data, we find star and planet masses of M_* = 0.69+- 0.02 M_solar and m_p = 14.1 +- 0.9 M_earth. The planetary microlens system is located toward the Galactic bulge at a distance of D_L = 4.1 +- 0.4 kpc, and the projected star-planet separation is a_perp = 3.5 +- 0.3 AU, corresponding to a semi-major axis of a = 4.0 (+2.2 -0.6) AU.