No Arabic abstract
We report the discovery of a Jupiter-mass planet orbiting an M-dwarf star that gave rise to the microlensing event OGLE-2011-BLG-0265. Such a system is very rare among known planetary systems and thus the discovery is important for theoretical studies of planetary formation and evolution. High-cadence temporal coverage of the planetary signal combined with extended observations throughout the event allows us to accurately model the observed light curve. The final microlensing solution remains, however, degenerate yielding two possible configurations of the planet and the host star. In the case of the preferred solution, the mass of the planet is $M_{rm p} = 0.9pm 0.3 M_{rm J}$, and the planet is orbiting a star with a mass $M = 0.22pm 0.06 M_odot$. The second possible configuration (2$sigma$ away) consists of a planet with $M_{rm p}=0.6pm 0.3 M_{rm J}$ and host star with $M=0.14pm 0.06 M_odot$. The system is located in the Galactic disk 3 -- 4 kpc towards the Galactic bulge. In both cases, with an orbit size of 1.5 -- 2.0 AU, the planet is a cold Jupiter -- located well beyond the snow line of the host star. Currently available data make the secure selection of the correct solution difficult, but there are prospects for lifting the degeneracy with additional follow-up observations in the future, when the lens and source star separate.
We report the analysis of planetary microlensing event OGLE-2018-BLG-1185, which was observed by a large number of ground-based telescopes and by the $Spitzer$ Space Telescope. The ground-based light curve indicates a low planet-host star mass ratio of $q = (6.9 pm 0.2) times 10^{-5}$, which is near the peak of the wide-orbit exoplanet mass-ratio distribution. We estimate the host star and planet masses with a Bayesian analysis using the measured angular Einstein radius under the assumption that stars of all masses have an equal probability to host this planet. The flux variation observed by $Spitzer$ was marginal, but still places a constraint on the microlens parallax. Imposing a conservative constraint that this flux variation should be $Delta f_{rm Spz} < 4$ instrumental flux units indicates a host mass of $M_{rm host} = 0.37^{+0.35}_{-0.21} M_odot$ and a planet mass of $m_{rm p} = 8.4^{+7.9}_{-4.7} M_oplus$. A Bayesian analysis including the full parallax constraint from $Spitzer$ suggests smaller host star and planet masses of $M_{rm host} = 0.091^{+0.064}_{-0.018} M_odot$ and $m_{rm p} = 2.1^{+1.5}_{-0.4} M_oplus$, respectively. Future high-resolution imaging observations with $HST$ or ELTs could distinguish between these two scenarios and help to reveal the planetary system properties in more detail.
We report the discovery and the analysis of the short (tE < 5 days) planetary microlensing event, OGLE-2015-BLG-1771. The event was discovered by the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE), and the planetary anomaly (at I ~ 19) was captured by The Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet). The event has three surviving planetary models that explain the observed light curves, with planet-host mass ratio q ~ 5.4 * 10^{-3}, 4.5 * 10^{-3} and 4.5 * 10^{-2}, respectively. The first model is the best-fit model, while the second model is disfavored by Deltachi^2 ~ 3. The last model is strongly disfavored by Deltachi^2 ~ 15 but not ruled out. A Bayesian analysis using a Galactic model indicates that the first two models are probably composed of a Saturn-mass planet orbiting a late M dwarf, while the third one could consist of a super-Jovian planet and a mid-mass brown dwarf. The source-lens relative proper motion is mu_rel ~ 9 mas/yr, so the source and lens could be resolved by current adaptive-optics (AO) instruments in 2021 if the lens is luminous.
We present adaptive optics imaging from the NIRC2 instrument on the Keck-2 telescope that resolves the exoplanet host (and lens) star as it separates from the brighter source star. These observations yield the $K$-band brightness of the lens and planetary host star, as well as the lens-source relative proper motion, $mu_{rm rel,H}$. in the heliocentric reference frame. The $mu_{rm rel,H}$ measurement allows determination of the microlensing parallax vector, $pi_E$, which had only a single component determined by the microlensing light curve. The combined measurements of $mu_{rm rel,H}$ and $K_L$ provide the masses of the host stat, $M_{rm host} = 0.426pm 0.037 M_odot$, and planet, $m_p = 3.27 pm 0.32 M_{rm Jup}$ with a projected separation of $3.4pm 0.5,$AU. This confirms the tentative conclusion of a previous paper (Dong et al. 2009) that this super-Jupiter mass planet, OGLE-2005-BLG-071Lb, orbits an M-dwarf. Such planets are predicted to be rare by the core accretion theory and have been difficult to find with other methods, but there are two such planets with firm mass measurements from microlensing, and an additional 11 planetary microlens events with host mass estimates $< 0.5M_odot$ and planet mass estimates $> 2$ Jupiter masses that could be confirmed by high angular follow-up observations. We also point out that OGLE-2005-BLG-071L has separated far enough from its host star that it should be possible to measure the host star metallicity withspectra from a high angular resolution telescope such as Keck, the VLT, the Hubble Space Telescope or the James Webb Space Telescope.
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 report the discovery of a sub-Jupiter mass planet orbiting beyond the snow line of an M-dwarf most likely in the Galactic disk as part of the joint Spitzer and ground-based monitoring of microlensing planetary anomalies toward the Galactic bulge. The microlensing parameters are strongly constrained by the light curve modeling and in particular by the Spitzer-based measurement of the microlens parallax, $pi_mathrm{E}$. However, in contrast to many planetary microlensing events, there are no caustic crossings, so the angular Einstein radius, $theta_mathrm{E}$ has only an upper limit based on the light curve modeling alone. Additionally, the analysis leads us to identify 8 degenerate configurations: the four-fold microlensing parallax degeneracy being doubled by a degeneracy in the caustic structure present at the level of the ground-based solutions. To pinpoint the physical parameters, and at the same time to break the parallax degeneracy, we make use of a series of arguments: the $chi^2$ hierarchy, the Rich argument, and a prior Galactic model. The preferred configuration is for a host at $D_L=3.73_{-0.67}^{+0.66}~mathrm{kpc}$ with mass $M_mathrm{L}=0.30_{-0.12}^{+0.15}~mathrm{M_odot}$, orbited by a Saturn-like planet with $M_mathrm{planet}=0.43_{-0.17}^{+0.21}~mathrm{M_mathrm{Jup}}$ at projected separation $a_perp = 1.70_{-0.39}^{+0.38}~mathrm{au}$, about 2.1 times beyond the system snow line. Therefore, it adds to the growing population of sub-Jupiter planets orbiting near or beyond the snow line of M-dwarfs discovered by microlensing. Based on the rules of the real-time protocol for the selection of events to be followed up with Spitzer, this planet will not enter the sample for measuring the Galactic distribution of planets.