No Arabic abstract
We present an analysis of the anomalous microlensing event, MOA-2010-BLG-073, announced by the Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics survey on 2010-03-18. This event was remarkable because the source was previously known to be photometrically variable. Analyzing the pre-event source lightcurve, we demonstrate that it is an irregular variable over time scales >200d. Its dereddened color, $(V-I)_{S,0}$, is 1.221$pm$0.051mag and from our lens model we derive a source radius of 14.7$pm$1.3 $R_{odot}$, suggesting that it is a red giant star. We initially explored a number of purely microlensing models for the event but found a residual gradient in the data taken prior to and after the event. This is likely to be due to the variability of the source rather than part of the lensing event, so we incorporated a slope parameter in our model in order to derive the true parameters of the lensing system. We find that the lensing system has a mass ratio of q=0.0654$pm$0.0006. The Einstein crossing time of the event, $T_{rm{E}}=44.3$pm$0.1d, was sufficiently long that the lightcurve exhibited parallax effects. In addition, the source trajectory relative to the large caustic structure allowed the orbital motion of the lens system to be detected. Combining the parallax with the Einstein radius, we were able to derive the distance to the lens, $D_L$=2.8$pm$0.4kpc, and the masses of the lensing objects. The primary of the lens is an M-dwarf with $M_{L,p}$=0.16$pm0.03M_{odot}$ while the companion has $M_{L,s}$=11.0$pm2.0M_{rm{J}}$ putting it in the boundary zone between planets and brown dwarfs.
We analyze KMT-2019-BLG-1339, a microlensing event with an obvious but incompletely resolved brief anomaly feature around the peak of the light curve. Although the origin of the anomaly is identified to be a companion to the lens with a low mass ratio $q$, the interpretation is subject to two different degeneracy types. The first type is the ambiguity in $rho$, representing the angular source radius scaled to the angular radius of the Einstein ring, $theta_{rm E}$, and the other is the $sleftrightarrow s^{-1}$ degeneracy. The former type, `finite-source degeneracy, causes ambiguities in both $s$ and $q$, while the latter induces an ambiguity only in $s$. Here $s$ denotes the separation (in units of $theta_{rm E}$) in projection between the lens components. We estimate that the lens components have masses $(M_1, M_2)sim (0.27^{+0.36}_{-0.15}~M_odot, 11^{+16}_{-7}~M_{rm J})$ and $sim (0.48^{+0.40}_{-0.28}~M_odot, 1.3^{+1.1}_{-0.7}~M_{rm J})$ according to the two solutions subject to the finite-source degeneracy, indicating that the lens comprises an M dwarf and a companion with a mass around the planet/brown dwarf boundary or a Jovian-mass planet. It is possible to lift the finite-source degeneracy by conducting future observations utilizing a high resolution instrument because the relative lens-source proper motion predicted by the solutions are widely different.
We present the analysis of the binary-lens microlensing event OGLE-2013-BLG-0911. The best-fit solutions indicate the binary mass ratio of q~0.03 which differs from that reported in Shvartzvald+2016. The event suffers from the well-known close/wide degeneracy, resulting in two groups of solutions for the projected separation normalized by the Einstein radius of s~0.15 or s~7. The finite source and the parallax observations allow us to measure the lens physical parameters. The lens system is an M-dwarf orbited by a massive Jupiter companion at very close (M_{host}=0.30^{+0.08}_{-0.06} M_{Sun}, M_{comp}=10.1^{+2.9}_{-2.2} M_{Jup}, a_{exp}=0.40^{+0.05}_{-0.04} au) or wide (M_{host}=0.28^{+0.10}_{-0.08} M_{Sun}, M_{comp}=9.9^{+3.8}_{-3.5}M_{Jup}, a_{exp}=18.0^{+3.2}_{-3.2} au) separation. Although the mass ratio is slightly above the planet-brown dwarf (BD) mass-ratio boundary of q=0.03 which is generally used, the median physical mass of the companion is slightly below the planet-BD mass boundary of 13M_{Jup}. It is likely that the formation mechanisms for BDs and planets are different and the objects near the boundaries could have been formed by either mechanism. It is important to probe the distribution of such companions with masses of ~13M_{Jup} in order to statistically constrain the formation theories for both BDs and massive planets. In particular, the microlensing method is able to probe the distribution around low-mass M-dwarfs and even BDs which is challenging for other exoplanet detection methods.
We report the discovery of a planet with a high planet-to-star mass ratio in the microlensing event MOA-2009-BLG-387, which exhibited pronounced deviations over a 12-day interval, one of the longest for any planetary event. The host is an M dwarf, with a mass in the range 0.07 M_sun < M_host < 0.49M_sun at 90% confidence. The planet-star mass ratio q = 0.0132 +- 0.003 has been measured extremely well, so at the best-estimated host mass, the planet mass is m_p = 2.6 Jupiter masses for the median host mass, M = 0.19 M_sun. The host mass is determined from two higher order microlensing parameters. One of these, the angular Einstein radius theta_E = 0.31 +- 0.03 mas, is very well measured, but the other (the microlens parallax pi_E, which is due to the Earths orbital motion) is highly degenate with the orbital motion of the planet. We statistically resolve the degeneracy between Earth and planet orbital effects by imposing priors from a Galactic model that specifies the positions and velocities of lenses and sources and a Kepler model of orbits. The 90% confidence intervals for the distance, semi-major axis, and period of the planet are 3.5 kpc < D_L < 7.9 kpc, 1.1 AU < a < 2.7AU, and 3.8 yr < P < 7.6 yr, respectively.
We analyze the planetary microlensing event MOA-2010-BLG-328. The best fit yields host and planetary masses of Mh = 0.11+/-0.01 M_{sun} and Mp = 9.2+/-2.2M_Earth, corresponding to a very late M dwarf and sub-Neptune-mass planet, respectively. The system lies at DL = 0.81 +/- 0.10 kpc with projected separation r = 0.92 +/- 0.16 AU. Because of the hosts a-priori-unlikely close distance, as well as the unusual nature of the system, we consider the possibility that the microlens parallax signal, which determines the host mass and distance, is actually due to xallarap (source orbital motion) that is being misinterpreted as parallax. We show a result that favors the parallax solution, even given its close host distance. We show that future high-resolution astrometric measurements could decisively resolve the remaining ambiguity of these solutions.
We report the discovery and the analysis of the short timescale binary-lens microlensing event, MOA-2015-BLG-337. The lens system could be a planetary system with a very low mass host, around the brown dwarf/planetary mass boundary, or a brown dwarf binary. We found two competing models that explain the observed light curves with companion/host mass ratios of q~0.01 and ~0.17, respectively. From the measurement of finite source effects in the best-fit planetary model, we find a relatively small angular Einstein radius of theta_E ~ 0.03 mas which favors a low mass lens. We conduct a Bayesian analysis to obtain the probability distribution of the lens properties. The results for the planetary models strongly depend on the minimum mass, M_min, in the assumed mass function. In summary, there are two solutions of the lens system: (1) a brown dwarf/planetary mass boundary object orbited by a super-Neptune (the planetary model with M_min=0.001 M_sun) and (2) a brown dwarf binary (the binary model). If the planetary models is correct, this system can be one of a new class of planetary system, having a low host mass and also a planetary mass ratio (q <0.03) between the host and its companion. The discovery of the event is important for the study of planetary formation in very low mass objects. In addition, it is important to consider all viable solutions in these kinds of ambiguous events in order for the future comprehensive statistical analyses of planetary/binary microlensing events.