Search

We present the analysis of the gravitational microlensing event OGLE-2013-BLG-0102. The light curve of the event is characterized by a strong short-term anomaly superposed on a smoothly varying lensing curve with a moderate magnification Amax ~1.5. It is found that the event was produced by a binary lens with a mass ratio between the components of q = 0.13 and the anomaly was caused by the passage of the source trajectory over a caustic located away from the barycenter of the binary. From the analysis of the effects on the light curve due to the finite size of the source and the parallactic motion of the Earth, the physical parameters of the lens system are determined. The measured masses of the lens components are M1 = 0.096 ± 0.013 M⊙ and M2 = 0.012±0.002 M⊙, which correspond to near the hydrogen-burning and deuterium-burning mass limits, respectively. The distance to the lens is 3.04±0.31 kpc and the projected separation between the lens components is 0.80 ± 0.08 AU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the first microlensing candidate for a free-floating exoplanet-exomoon system, MOA-2011-BLG-262, with a primary lens mass of Mhost ∼ 4 Jupiter masses hosting a sub-Earth mass moon. The argument for an exomoon hinges on the system being relatively close to the Sun. The data constrain the product MLπrel where ML is the lens system mass and πrel is the lens-source relative parallax. If the lens system is nearby (large πrel), then ML is small (a few Jupiter masses) and the companion is a sub-Earth-mass exomoon. The best-fit solution has a large lens-source relative proper motion, μrel = 19.6 ± 1.6 mas yr–1, which would rule out a distant lens system unless the source star has an unusually high proper motion. However, data from the OGLE collaboration nearly rule out a high source proper motion, so the exoplanet+exomoon model is the favored interpretation for the best fit model. However, there is an alternate solution that has a lower proper motion and fits the data almost as well. This solution is compatible with a distant (so stellar) host. A Bayesian analysis does not favor the exoplanet+exomoon interpretation, so Occam's razor favors a lens system in the bulge with host and companion masses of and , at a projected separation of AU. The existence of this degeneracy is an unlucky accident, so current microlensing experiments are in principle sensitive to exomoons. In some circumstances, it will be possible to definitively establish the mass of such lens systems through the microlensing parallax effect. Future experiments will be sensitive to less extreme exomoons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on the analysis of the high microlensing event MOA-2008-BLG-379, which has a strong microlensing anomaly at its peak due to a massive planet with a mass ratio of q = 6.9 × 10–3. Because the faint source star crosses the large resonant caustic, the planetary signal dominates the light curve. This is unusual for planetary microlensing events, and as a result, the planetary nature of this light curve was not immediately noticed. The planetary nature of the event was found when the Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics (MOA) Collaboration conducted a systematic study of binary microlensing events previously identified by the MOA alert system. We have conducted a Bayesian analysis based on a standard Galactic model to estimate the physical parameters of the lens system. This yields a host star mass of orbited by a planet of mass at an orbital separation of AU at a distance of kpc. The faint source magnitude of IS = 21.30 and relatively high lens-source relative proper motion of μrel = 7.6 ± 1.6 mas yr–1 imply that high angular resolution adaptive optics or HubbleSpaceTelescope observations are likely to be able to detect the source star, which would determine the masses and distance of the planet and its host star. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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☼ and Mp = 9.2 ± 2.2 M⊕, 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 host's 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present measurements of the microlensing optical depth and event rate toward the Galactic Bulge (GB) based on two years of the MOA-II survey. This sample contains ∼1000 microlensing events, with an Einstein radius crossing time of tE ⩽ 200 days in 22 bulge fields covering ∼42 deg2 between –5° < l < 10° and –7° < b < –1°. Our event rate and optical depth analysis uses 474 events with well-defined microlensing parameters. In the central fields with |l| < 5°, we find an event rate of Γ = [2.39 ± 1.1]e[0.60 ± 0.05](3 – |b|) × 10–5 star–1 yr–1 and an optical depth (for events with tE ⩽ 200 days) of τ200 = [2.35 ± 0.18]e[0.51 ± 0.07](3 – |b|) × 10–6 for the 427 events, using all sources brighter than Is ⩽ 20 mag. The distribution of observed fields is centered at (l, b) = (0.°38, –3.°72). We find that the event rate is maximized at low latitudes and a longitude of l ≈ 1°. For the 111 events in 3.2 deg2 of the central GB at |b| ⩽ 3.°0 and 0.°0 ⩽ l ⩽ 2.°0, centered at (l, b) = (0.°97, –2.°26), we find star–1 yr–1 and . We also consider a red clump giant (RCG) star sample with Is < 17.5, and we find that the event rate for the RCG sample is slightly lower than but consistent with the all-source event rate. The main difference is the lack of long duration events in the RCG sample due to a known selection effect. Our results are consistent with previous optical depth measurements, but they are somewhat lower than previous all-source measurements, and slightly higher than previous RCG optical depth measurements. This suggests that the previously observed difference in optical depth measurements between all-source and RCG samples may largely be due to statistical fluctuations. These event rate measurements toward the central GB are necessary to predict the microlensing event rate and to optimize the survey fields in future space missions such as Wide Field Infrared Space Telescope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A planetary microlensing signal is generally characterized by a short-term perturbation to the standard single lensing light curve. A subset of binary-source events can produce perturbations that mimic planetary signals, thereby introducing an ambiguity between the planetary and binary-source interpretations. In this paper, we present the analysis of the microlensing event MOA-2012-BLG-486, for which the light curve exhibits a short-lived perturbation. Routine modeling not considering data taken in different passbands yields a best-fit planetary model that is slightly preferred over the best-fit binary-source model. However, when allowed for a change in the color during the perturbation, we find that the binary-source model yields a significantly better fit and thus the degeneracy is clearly resolved. This event not only signifies the importance of considering various interpretations of short-term anomalies, but also demonstrates the importance of multi-band data for checking the possibility of false-positive planetary signals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Observations of accretion disks around young brown dwarfs (BDs) have led to the speculation that they may form planetary systems similar to normal stars. While there have been several detections of planetary-mass objects around BDs (2MASS 1207-3932 and 2MASS 0441-2301), these companions have relatively large mass ratios and projected separations, suggesting that they formed in a manner analogous to stellar binaries. We present the discovery of a planetary-mass object orbiting a field BD via gravitational microlensing, OGLE-2012-BLG-0358Lb. The system is a low secondary/primary mass ratio (0.080 ± 0.001), relatively tightly separated (∼0.87 AU) binary composed of a planetary-mass object with 1.9 ± 0.2 Jupiter masses orbiting a BD with a mass 0.022 M☼. The relatively small mass ratio and separation suggest that the companion may have formed in a protoplanetary disk around the BD host in a manner analogous to planets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although many models have been proposed, the physical mechanisms responsible for the formation of low-mass brown dwarfs (BDs) are poorly understood. Themultiplicity properties and minimummass of the BD mass function provide critical empirical diagnostics of these mechanisms.We present the discovery via gravitational microlensing of two very low mass, very tight binary systems. These binaries have directly and precisely measured total system masses of 0.025M☉ and 0.034M☉, and projected separations of 0.31 AU and 0.19 AU, making them the lowestmass and tightest field BD binaries known. The discovery of a population of such binaries indicates that BD binaries can robustly form at least down to masses of ~0.02M☉. Future microlensing surveys will measure a mass-selected sample of BD binary systems, which can then be directly compared to similar samples of stellar binaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently Sumi et al. reported evidence for a large population of planetary-mass objects (PMOs) that are either unbound or orbit host stars in orbits ⩾10 AU. Their result was deduced from the statistical distribution of durations of gravitational microlensing events observed by the MOA collaboration during 2006 and 2007. Here we study the feasibility of measuring the mass of an individual PMO through microlensing by examining a particular event, MOA-2011-BLG-274. This event was unusual as the duration was short, the magnification high, the source-size effect large, and the angular Einstein radius small. Also, it was intensively monitored from widely separated locations under clear skies at low air masses. Choi et al. concluded that the lens of the event may have been a PMO but they did not attempt a measurement of its mass. We report here a re-analysis of the event using re-reduced data. We confirm the results of Choi et al. and attempt a measurement of the mass and distance of the lens using the terrestrial parallax effect. Evidence for terrestrial parallax is found at a 3σ level of confidence. The best fit to the data yields the mass and distance of the lens as 0.80 ± 0.30 MJ and 0.80 ± 0.25 kpc respectively. We exclude a host star to the lens out to a separation ∼40 AU. Drawing on our analysis of MOA-2011-BLG-274 we propose observational strategies for future microlensing surveys to yield sharper results on PMOs including those down to super-Earth mass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mass of the lenses giving rise to Galactic microlensing events can be constrained by measuring the relative lens-source proper motion and lens flux. The flux of the lens can be separated from that of the source, companions to the source, and unrelated nearby stars with high-resolution images taken when the lens and source are spatially resolved. For typical ground-based adaptive optics (AO) or space-based observations, this requires either inordinately long time baselines or high relative proper motions. We provide a list of microlensing events toward the Galactic bulge with high relative lens-source proper motion that are therefore good candidates for constraining the lens mass with future high-resolution imaging. We investigate all events from 2004 to 2013 that display detectable finite-source effects, a feature that allows us to measure the proper motion. In total, we present 20 events with μ ≳ 8 mas yr–1. Of these, 14 were culled from previous analyses while 6 are new, including OGLE-2004-BLG-368, MOA-2005-BLG-36, OGLE-2012-BLG-0211, OGLE-2012-BLG-0456, MOA-2012-BLG-532, and MOA-2013-BLG-029. In ≲12 yr from the time of each event the lens and source of each event will be sufficiently separated for ground-based telescopes with AO systems or space telescopes to resolve each component and further characterize the lens system. Furthermore, for the most recent events, comparison of the lens flux estimates from images taken immediately to those estimated from images taken when the lens and source are resolved can be used to empirically check the robustness of the single-epoch method currently being used to estimate lens masses for many events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the analysis of four candidate short-duration binary microlensing events from the 2006-2007 MOA Project short-event analysis. These events were discovered as a by-product of an analysis designed to find short-timescale single-lens events that may be due to free-floating planets. Three of these events are determined to be microlensing events, while the fourth is most likely caused by stellar variability. For each of the three microlensing events, the signal is almost entirely due to a brief caustic feature with little or no lensing attributable mainly to the lens primary. One of these events, MOA-bin-1, is due to a planet, and it is the first example of a planetary event in which the stellar host is only detected through binary microlensing effects. The mass ratio and separation are q = (4.9 ± 1.4) × 10–3 and s = 2.10 ± 0.05, respectively. A Bayesian analysis based on a standard Galactic model indicates that the planet, MOA-bin-1Lb, has a mass of mp = 3.7 ± 2.1 MJup and orbits a star of at a semimajor axis of AU. This is one of the most massive and widest separation planets found by microlensing. The scarcity of such wide-separation planets also has implications for interpretation of the isolated planetary mass objects found by this analysis. If we assume that we have been able to detect wide-separation planets with an efficiency at least as high as that for isolated planets, then we can set limits on the distribution of planets in wide orbits. In particular, if the entire isolated planet sample found by Sumi et al. consists of planets bound in wide orbits around stars, we find that it is likely that the median orbital semimajor axis is >30 AU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of the development of large-format, wide-field cameras, microlensing surveys are now able to monitor millions of stars with sufficient cadence to detect planets. These new discoveries will span the full range of significance levels including planetary signals too small to be distinguished from the noise. At present, we do not understand where the threshold is for detecting planets. MOA-2011-BLG-293Lb is the first planet to be published from the new surveys, and it also has substantial follow-up observations. This planet is robustly detected in survey+follow-up data (Δχ2 ∼ 5400). The planet/host mass ratio is q = (5.3 ± 0.2) × 10–3. The best-fit projected separation is s = 0.548 ± 0.005 Einstein radii. However, due to the s↔s–1 degeneracy, projected separations of s–1 are only marginally disfavored at Δχ2 = 3. A Bayesian estimate of the host mass gives ML = 0.43+0.27– 0.17M☼, with a sharp upper limit of ML < 1.2 M☼ from upper limits on the lens flux. Hence, the planet mass is mp = 2.4+1.5– 0.9MJup, and the physical projected separation is either r⊥ ≃ 1.0 AU or r⊥ ≃ 3.4 AU. We show that survey data alone predict this solution and are able to characterize the planet, but the Δχ2 is much smaller (Δχ2 ∼ 500) than with the follow-up data. The Δχ2 for the survey data alone is smaller than for any other securely detected planet. This event suggests a means to probe the detection threshold, by analyzing a large sample of events like MOA-2011-BLG-293, which have both follow-up data and high-cadence survey data, to provide a guide for the interpretation of pure survey microlensing data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the extremely high-magnification (A > 1000) binary microlensing event OGLE-2007-BLG-514. We obtained good coverage around the double peak structure in the light curve via follow-up observations from different observatories. The binary lens model that includes the effects of parallax (known orbital motion of the Earth) and orbital motion of the lens yields a binary lens mass ratio of q = 0.321 ± 0.007 and a projected separation of s = 0.072 ± 0.001 in units of the Einstein radius. The parallax parameters allow us to determine the lens distance DL = 3.11 ± 0.39 kpc and total mass ML = 1.40 ± 0.18 M☼; this leads to the primary and secondary components having masses of M1 = 1.06 ± 0.13 M☼ and M2 = 0.34 ± 0.04 M☼, respectively. The parallax model indicates that the binary lens system is likely constructed by the main-sequence stars. On the other hand, we used a Bayesian analysis to estimate probability distributions by the model that includes the effects of xallarap (possible orbital motion of the source around a companion) and parallax (q = 0.270 ± 0.005, s = 0.083 ± 0.001). The primary component of the binary lens is relatively massive, with M1 = 0.9+4.6–0.3M☼ and it is at a distance of DL = 2.6+3.8–0.9 kpc. Given the secure mass ratio measurement, the companion mass is therefore M2 = 0.2+1.2–0.1M☼. The xallarap model implies that the primary lens is likely a stellar remnant, such as a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]