No Arabic abstract
Microlensing offers a unique opportunity to probe exoplanets that are temperate and beyond the snow line, as small as Jovian satellites, at extragalactic distance, and even free floating exoplanets, regimes where the sensitivity of other methods drops dramatically. This is because microlensing does not depend on the brightness of the planetary host star. The microlensing method thus provides great leverage in studying the exoplanets beyond the snow line, posing tests to the core accretion mechanism, especially on the run-away phase of gas accretion to form giant planets. Here we propose to robustly and routinely measure the masses of exoplanets beyond 1 AU from their host stars with the microlensing method; our experiment relies on directly imaging and resolving the host star (namely the lens) from the background source of the microlensing events, which requires the high spatial resolution delivered by the ELTs. A direct result from this project will be planet occurrence rate beyond the snow line, which will enable us to discern different planet formation mechanisms.
Precise and, if possible, accurate characterization of exoplanets cannot be dissociated from the characterization of their host stars. In this chapter we discuss different methods and techniques used to derive fundamental properties and atmospheric parameters of exoplanet-host stars. The main limitations, advantages and disadvantages, as well as corresponding typical measurement uncertainties of each method are presented.
We present the analysis of microlensing event MOA-2010-BLG-117, and show that the light curve can only be explained by the gravitational lensing of a binary source star system by a star with a Jupiter mass ratio planet. It was necessary to modify standard microlensing modeling methods to find the correct light curve solution for this binary-source, binary-lens event. We are able to measure a strong microlensing parallax signal, which yields the masses of the host star, $M_* = 0.58pm 0.11 M_odot$, and planet $m_p = 0.54pm 0.10 M_{rm Jup}$ at a projected star-planet separation of $a_perp = 2.42pm 0.26,$AU, corresponding to a semi-major axis of $a = 2.9{+1.6atop -0.6},$AU. Thus, the system resembles a half-scale model of the Sun-Jupiter system with a half-Jupiter mass planet orbiting a half-solar mass star at very roughly half of Jupiters orbital distance from the Sun. The source stars are slightly evolved, and by requiring them to lie on the same isochrone, we can constrain the source to lie in the near side of the bulge at a distance of $D_S = 6.9 pm 0.7,$kpc, which implies a distance to the planetary lens system of $D_L = 3.5pm 0.4,$kpc. The ability to model unusual planetary microlensing events, like this one, will be necessary to extract precise statistical information from the planned large exoplanet microlensing surveys, such as the WFIRST microlensing survey.
We investigate the gravitational microlensing event KMT-2019-BLG-1715, of which light curve shows two short-term anomalies from a caustic-crossing binary-lensing light curve: one with a large deviation and the other with a small deviation. We identify five pairs of solutions, in which the anomalies are explained by adding an extra lens or source component in addition to the base binary-lens model. We resolve the degeneracies by applying a method, in which the measured flux ratio between the first and second source stars is compared with the flux ratio deduced from the ratio of the source radii. Applying this method leaves a single pair of viable solutions, in both of which the major anomaly is generated by a planetary-mass third body of the lens, and the minor anomaly is generated by a faint second source. A Bayesian analysis indicates that the lens comprises three masses: a planet-mass object with $sim 2.6~M_{rm J}$ and binary stars of K and M dwarfs lying in the galactic disk. We point out the possibility that the lens is the blend, and this can be verified by conducting high-resolution followup imaging for the resolution of the lens from the source.
We have now accumulated a wealth of observations of the planet-formation environment and of mature planetary systems. These data allow us to test and refine theories of gas-giant planet formation by placing constraints on the conditions and timescale of this process. Yet a number of fundamental questions remain unanswered about how protoplanets accumulate material, their photospheric properties and compositions, and how they interact with protoplanetary disks. While we have begun to detect protoplanet candidates during the last several years, we are presently only sensitive to the widest separation, highest mass / accretion rate cases. Current observing facilities lack the angular resolution and inner working angle to probe the few-AU orbital separations where giant planet formation is thought to be most efficient. They also lack the contrast to detect accretion rates that would form lower mass gas giants and ice giants. Instruments and telescopes coming online over the next decade will provide high contrast in the inner giant-planet-forming regions around young stars, allowing us to build a protoplanet census and to characterize planet formation in detail for the first time.
We present the analysis of the microlensing event KMT-2018-BLG-1743. The light curve of the event, with a peak magnification $A_{rm peak}sim 800$, exhibits two anomaly features, one around the peak and the other on the falling side of the light curve. An interpretation with a binary lens and a single source (2L1S) cannot describe the anomalies. By conducting additional modeling that includes an extra lens (3L1S) or an extra source (2L2S) relative to a 2L1S interpretation, we find that 2L2S interpretations with a planetary lens system and a binary source best explain the observed light curve with $Deltachi^2sim 188$ and $sim 91$ over the 2L1S and 3L1S solutions, respectively. Assuming that these $Deltachi^2$ values are adequate for distinguishing the models, the event is the fourth 2L2S event and the second 2L2S planetary event. The 2L2S interpretations are subject to a degeneracy, resulting in two solutions with $s>1.0$ (wide solution) and $s<1.0$ (close solution). The masses of the lens components and the distance to the lens are $(M_{rm host}/M_odot, M_{rm planet}/M_{rm J}, D_{rm L}/{rm kpc}) sim (0.19^{+0.27}_{-0.111}, 0.25^{+0.34}_{-0.14}, 6.48^{+0.94}_{-1.03})$ and $sim (0.42^{+0.34}_{-0.25}, 1.61^{+1.30}_{-0.97}, 6.04^{+0.93}_{-1.27})$ according to the wide and close solutions, respectively. The source is a binary composed of an early G dwarf and a mid M dwarf. The values of the relative lens-source proper motion expected from the two degenerate solutions, $mu_{rm wide}sim 2.3 $mas yr$^{-1}$ and $mu_{rm close} sim 4.1 $mas yr$^{-1}$, are substantially different, and thus the degeneracy can be broken by resolving the lens and source from future high-resolution imaging observations.