paper

Microlens Terrestrial Parallax Mass Measurements: A Rare Probe of Isolated Brown Dwarfs and Free-Floating Planets

arXiv:1212.1732 · doi:10.1088/0004-637X/764/1/107

Abstract

Terrestrial microlens parallax is one of the very few methods that can measure the mass and number density of isolated dark low-mass objects, such as old free-floating planets and brown dwarfs. Terrestrial microlens parallax can be measured whenever a microlensing event differs substantially as observed from two or more well-separated sites. If the lens also transits the source during the event, then its mass can be measured. We derive an analytic expression for the expected rate of such events and then use this to derive two important conclusions. First the rate is directly proportional to the number density of a given population, greatly favoring low-mass populations relative to their contribution to the general microlensing rate, which further scales as sqrt{M} where M is the lens mass. Second, the rate rises sharply as one probes smaller source stars, despite the fact that the probability of transit falls directly with source size. We propose modifications to current observing strategies that could yield a factor 100 increase in sensitivity to these rare events.

8 pages; submitted to ApJ Letters

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