Journal article
OPTIMAL SURVEY STRATEGIES AND PREDICTED PLANET YIELDS FOR THE KOREAN MICROLENSING TELESCOPE NETWORK
The Astrophysical journal, Vol.794(1), pp.1-29
10/10/2014
DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/794/1/52
Abstract
The Korean Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) will consist of three 1.6 m telescopes each with a 4 deg(2) field of view (FoV) and will be dedicated to monitoring the Galactic Bulge to detect exoplanets via gravitational microlensing. KMTNet's combination of aperture size, FoV, cadence, and longitudinal coverage will provide a unique opportunity to probe exoplanet demographics in an unbiased way. Here we present simulations that optimize the observing strategy for and predict the planetary yields of KMTNet. We find preferences for four target fields located in the central Bulge and an exposure time of t(exp) = 120 s, leading to the detection of similar to 2200 microlensing events per year. We estimate the planet detection rates for planets with mass and separation across the ranges 0.1 <= M-p/M-circle plus <= 1000 and 0.4 <= a/AU <= 16, respectively. Normalizing these rates to the cool-planet mass function of Cassan et al., we predict KMTNet will be approximately uniformly sensitive to planets with mass 5 <= M-p/M-circle plus <= 1000 and will detect similar to 20 planets per year per dex in mass across that range. For lower-mass planets with mass 0.1 <= M-p/M-circle plus < 5, we predict KMTNet will detect similar to 10 planets per year. We also compute the yields KMTNet will obtain for free-floating planets (FFPs) and predict KMTNet will detect similar to 1 Earth-mass FFP per year, assuming an underlying population of one such planet per star in the Galaxy. Lastly, we investigate the dependence of these detection rates on the number of observatories, the photometric precision limit, and optimistic assumptions regarding seeing, throughput, and flux measurement uncertainties.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- OPTIMAL SURVEY STRATEGIES AND PREDICTED PLANET YIELDS FOR THE KOREAN MICROLENSING TELESCOPE NETWORK
- Creators
- Calen B. Henderson - The Ohio State UniversityB. Scott Gaudi - The Ohio State UniversityCheongho Han - Chungbuk National UniversityJan Skowron - University of WarsawMatthew T. Penny - The Ohio State UniversityDavid Nataf - Australian National UniversityAndrew P. Gould - The Ohio State University
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- The Astrophysical journal, Vol.794(1), pp.1-29
- Publisher
- Iop Publishing Ltd
- DOI
- 10.1088/0004-637X/794/1/52
- ISSN
- 0004-637X
- eISSN
- 1538-4357
- Number of pages
- 29
- Grant note
- 2009-0081561 / Creative Research Initiative Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea; National Research Foundation of Korea 246678 / European Research Council under the European Community; European Research Council (ERC) AST 1103471 / NSF; National Science Foundation (NSF) 1103471 / Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien; National Science Foundation (NSF); NSF - Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences (MPS) international travel allowance through the Graduate Research Opportunities Worldwide DGE-0822215 / National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program; National Science Foundation (NSF) AST-1056524 / NSF CAREER grant; National Science Foundation (NSF); NSF - Office of the Director (OD) Space Exploration Research Fund of The Ohio State University
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 10/10/2014
- Academic Unit
- Physics and Astronomy
- Record Identifier
- 9984701825902771
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