2014ApJ...794...52H

The Korean Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) will consist of three 1.6 m telescopes each with a 4 deg² 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 ∼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_⊕ ≤ 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_⊕ ≤ 1000 and will detect ∼20 planets per year per dex in mass across that range. For lower-mass planets with mass 0.1 ≤ M_p/M_⊕< 5, we predict KMTNet will detect ∼10 planets per year. We also compute the yields KMTNet will obtain for free-floating planets (FFPs) and predict KMTNet will detect ∼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.