2025AJ....170..339S -
Astron. J., 170, 339 (2025/December-0)
Binary-lens Microlensing Degeneracy: Impact on Planetary Sensitivity and Mass-ratio Function.
SHANG Y., YANG H., ZHANG J., MAO S., GOULD A., ZANG W., QIAN Q. and YEE J.C.
Abstract (from CDS):
Gravitational microlensing is a unique method for discovering cold planets across a broad mass range. Reliable statistics of the microlensing planets require accurate sensitivity estimates. However, the impact of the degeneracies in binary-lens single-source (2L1S) models that affect many actual planet detections is often omitted in sensitivity estimates, leading to potential self-inconsistency of the statistics studies. In this work, we evaluate the effect of the 2L1S degeneracies on planetary sensitivity by simulating a series of typical microlensing events and comprehensively replicating a realistic planet detection pipeline, including the anomaly identification, global 2L1S model search, and degenerate model comparison. We find that for a pure-survey statistical sample, the 2L1S degeneracies reduce the overall planetary sensitivity by 5%-10%, with the effect increasing at higher planet-host mass ratios. This bias leads to an underestimation of planet occurrence rates and a flattening of the inferred mass-ratio function slope. This effect will be critical for upcoming space-based microlensing surveys like the Roman or Earth 2.0 missions, which are expected to discover ${ \mathcal O }(1{0}^{3})$ planets. We also discuss the computational challenges and propose potential approaches for future applications.
Abstract Copyright:
© 2025. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
Journal keyword(s):
Gravitational microlensing exoplanet detection - Gravitational microlensing - Exoplanet detection methods
Simbad objects:
52
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