Extending the Planetary Mass Function to Earth Mass by Microlensing at Moderately High Magnification
Abstract
A measurement by microlensing of the planetary mass function of planets with masses ranging from 5M_E to 10M_J and orbital radii from 0.5 to 10 AU was reported recently. A strategy for extending the mass range down to (1-3)M_E is proposed here. This entails monitoring the peaks of a few tens of microlensing events with moderately high magnifications with 1-2m class telescopes. Planets of a few Earth masses are found to produce deviations of ~ 5% to the peaks of microlensing light curves with durations ~ (0.7-3)hr in events with magnification ~ 100 if the projected separation of the planet lies in the annular region (0.85-1.2)r_E. Similar deviations are produced by Earth mass planets in the annular region (0.95-1.05)r_E. It is possible that sub-Earths could be detected very close to the Einstein ring if they are sufficiently abundant, and also planetary systems with more than one low mass planet.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1303.4123,
title = {Extending the Planetary Mass Function to Earth Mass by Microlensing at Moderately High Magnification},
author = {Fumio Abe and Charlotte Airey and Ellen Barnard and Julie Baudrey and Christine Botzler and Dimitri Douchin and Matthew Freeman and Patricia Larsen and Anna Niemiec and Yvette Perrott and Lydia Philpott and Nicholas Rattenbury and Philip Yock},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1303.4123},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
12 pages, 20 figures (in press) MNRAS (2013)