Litcius/Paper detail

A Free-floating or Wide-orbit Planet in the Microlensing Event OGLE-2019-BLG-0551

Przemek Mróz, Radosław Poleski, Cheongho Han, Andrzej Udalski, Andrew Gould, Michał K. Szymański, Igor Soszyński, Paweł Pietrukowicz, Szymon Kozłowski, Jan Skowron, Krzysztof Ulaczyk, Mariusz Gromadzki, Krzysztof Rybicki, Patryk Iwanek, Marcin Wrona, Michael D. Albrow, Sun-Ju Chung, Kyu-Ha Hwang, Yoon-Hyun Ryu, Youn Kil Jung, In-Gu Shin, Yossi Shvartzvald, Jennifer C. Yee, Weicheng Zang, Sang-Mok Cha, Dong-Jin Kim, Hyoun-Woo Kim, Seung-Lee Kim, Chung-Uk Lee, Dong-Joo Lee, Yongseok Lee, Byeong-Gon Park, Richard W. Pogge

2020The Astronomical Journal48 citationsDOIOpen Access PDF

Abstract

Abstract High-cadence observations of the Galactic bulge by the microlensing surveys led to the discovery of a handful of extremely short-timescale microlensing events that can be attributed to free-floating or wide-orbit planets. Here, we report the discovery of another strong free-floating planet candidate, which was found from the analysis of the gravitational microlensing event OGLE-2019-BLG-0551. The light curve of the event is characterized by a very short duration (≲3 days) and a very small amplitude (≲0.1 mag). From modeling of the light curve, we find that the Einstein timescale, day, is much shorter, and the angular Einstein radius, μ as, is much smaller than those of typical lensing events produced by stellar-mass lenses ( days, mas), indicating that the lens is very likely to be a planetary-mass object. We conduct an extensive search for possible signatures of a companion star in the light curve of the event, finding no significant evidence for the putative host star. For the first time, we also demonstrate that the angular Einstein radius of the lens does not depend on blending in the low-magnification events with strong finite source effects.

Topics & Concepts

Gravitational microlensingPhysicsEinstein radiusGravitational lensLight curveBulgeAstrophysicsAstronomyPlanetEvent (particle physics)RADIUSExoplanetPlanetary systemLens (geology)AmplitudeEinstein ringStarsGravitationEinsteinAngular diameterStar (game theory)OccultationDark matterStellar, planetary, and galactic studiesAstrophysics and Star Formation StudiesAstronomy and Astrophysical Research