The abundance of galactic planets from OGLE-III 2002 microlensing data

Abstract

From the 389 2002 OGLE-III observations of Galactic Bulge microlensing events we select 321 that are well described by a point-source point-lens lightcurve model. From this sample we identify n=1 event, 2002-BLG-055, which we regard as a strong planetary lensing candidate, and another, 2002-BLG-140, which is a possible candidate. If each of the 321 lens stars has 1 planet with a mass ratio q=m/M=10^{-3} and orbit radius a=R_E, the Einstein ring radius, analysis of detection efficiencies indicates that 14 planets should have been detectable with Δχ^2 > 25. Assuming our candidate is due to planetary lensing, then the abundance of planets with q=10^{-3} and a=R_E is n_p \approx n/14 = 7%. Conversion to physical units (M_Jup, and AU) gives the abundance of `cool Jupiters' (m \approx M_Jup, a \approx 4 AU) per lens star as n_p \approx n/5.5 = 18%. The detection probability scales roughly with q and (Δχ^2)^{-1/2}, and drops off from a peak at a \approx 4 AU like a Gaussian with a dispersion of 0.4 dex.

10 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

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