MOA-2010-BLG-311: A planetary candidate below the threshold of reliable detection
Abstract
We analyze MOA-2010-BLG-311, a high magnification (A_max>600) microlensing event with complete data coverage over the peak, making it very sensitive to planetary signals. We fit this event with both a point lens and a 2-body lens model and find that the 2-body lens model is a better fit but with only Delta chi^2~80. The preferred mass ratio between the lens star and its companion is $q=10^(-3.7+/-0.1), placing the candidate companion in the planetary regime. Despite the formal significance of the planet, we show that because of systematics in the data the evidence for a planetary companion to the lens is too tenuous to claim a secure detection. When combined with analyses of other high-magnification events, this event helps empirically define the threshold for reliable planet detection in high-magnification events, which remains an open question.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1210.6041,
title = {MOA-2010-BLG-311: A planetary candidate below the threshold of reliable detection},
author = {J. C. Yee and L. -W. Hung and I. A. Bond and W. Allen and L. A. G. Monard and M. D. Albrow and P. Fouque and M. Dominik and Y. Tsapras and A. Udalski and A. Gould and R. Zellem and M. Bos and G. W. Christie and D. L. DePoy and Subo Dong and J. Drummond and B. S. Gaudi and E. Gorbikov and C. Han and S. Kaspi and N. Klein and C. -U. Lee and D. Maoz and J. McCormick and D. Moorhouse and T. Natusch and M. Nola and B. -G. Park and R. W. Pogge and D. Polishook and A. Shporer and Y. Shvartzvald and J. Skowron and G. Thornley and F. Abe and D. P. Bennett and C. S. Botzler and P. Chote and M. Freeman and A. Fukui and K. Furusawa and P. Harris and Y. Itow and C. H. Ling and K. Masuda and Y. Matsubara and N. Miyake and K. Ohnishi and N. J. Rattenbury and To. Saito and D. J. Sullivan and T. Sumi and D. Suzuki and W. L. Sweatman and P. J. Tristram and K. Wada and P. C. M. Yock and M. K. Szymanski and I. Soszynski and M. Kubiak and R. Poleski and K. Ulaczyk and G. Pietrzynski and L. Wyrzykowski and E. Bachelet and V. Batista and T. G. Beatty and J. -P. Beaulieu and C. S. Bennett and R. Bowens-Rubin and S. Brillant and J. A. R. Caldwell and A. Cassan and A. A. Cole and E. Corrales and C. Coutures and S. Dieters and D. Dominis Prester and J. Donatowicz and J. Greenhill and C. B. Henderson and D. Kubas and J. -B. Marquette and R. Martin and J. W. Menzies and B. Shappee and A. Williams and D. Wouters and J. van Saders and M. Zub and R. A. Street and K. Horne and D. M. Bramich and I. A. Steele and K. A. Alsubai and V. Bozza and P. Browne and M. J. Burgdorf and S. Calchi Novati and P. Dodds and F. Finet and T. Gerner and S. Hardis and K. Harpsoe and F. V. Hessman and T. C. Hinse and M. Hundertmark and U. G. Jorgensen and N. Kains and E. Kerins and C. Liebig and L. Mancini and M. Mathiasen and M. T. Penny and S. Proft and S. Rahvar and D. Ricci and K. C. Sahu and G. Scarpetta and S. Schafer and F. Schonebeck and C. Snodgrass and J. Southworth and J. Surdej and J. Wambsgans},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1210.6041},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
29 pages, 6 Figures, 3 Tables. For a brief video presentation on this paper, please see http://www.youtube.com/user/OSUAstronomy 10/25/2012 - Updated author list. Replaced 10/10/13 to reflect the version published in ApJ