Published February 10, 2015 | Version v1
Journal article

PROSPECTS FOR CHARACTERIZING HOST STARS OF THE PLANETARY SYSTEM DETECTIONS PREDICTED FOR THE KOREAN MICROLENSING TELESCOPE NETWORK

  • 1. Department of Astronomy, The Ohio State University, 140 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210 (United States)

Description

I investigate the possibility of constraining the flux of the lens (i.e., host star) for the types of planetary systems the Korean Microlensing Telescope Network is predicted to find. I examine the potential to obtain lens flux measurements by (1) imaging the lens once it is spatially resolved from the source, (2) measuring the elongation of the point-spread function of the microlensing target (lens+source) when the lens and source are still unresolved, and (3) taking prompt follow-up photometry. In each case I simulate the observing programs for a representative example of current ground-based adaptive optics (AO) facilities (specifically NACO on the Very Large Telescope), future ground-based AO facilities (GMTIFS on the Giant Magellan Telescope, GMT), and future space telescopes (NIRCAM on the James Webb Space Telescope, JWST). Given the predicted distribution of relative lens-source proper motions, I find that the lens flux could be measured to a precision of σH≤0.1 for ≳60% of planet detections ≥5 yr after each microlensing event for a simulated observing program using GMT, which images resolved lenses. NIRCAM on JWST would be able to carry out equivalently high-precision measurements for ∼28% of events Δt = 10 yr after each event by imaging resolved lenses. I also explore the effects various blend components would have on the mass derived from prompt follow-up photometry, including companions to the lens, companions to the source, and unassociated interloping stars. I find that undetected blend stars would cause catastrophic failures (i.e., >50% fractional uncertainty in the inferred lens mass) for ≲ (16 · f bin)% of planet detections, where f bin is the binary fraction, with the majority of these failures occurring for host stars with mass ≲0.3 M

Availability note (English)

Available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/800/1/58

Additional details

Identifiers

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Astrophysical Journal
Journal Volume
800
Journal Issue
1
Journal Page Range
[14 p.]
ISSN
0004-637X
CODEN
ASJOAB

INIS

Country of Publication
United States
Country of Input or Organization
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
INIS RN
46069545
Subject category
S79: ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY;
Descriptors DEI
ACCURACY; COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION; DETECTION; GRAVITATIONAL LENSES; IMAGES; MASS; OPTICS; PHOTOMETRY; PLANETS; PROPER MOTION; SATELLITES; SPACE; STARS; TELESCOPES
Descriptors DEC
LENSES; MOTION; SIMULATION