A Characteristic Planetary Feature in Double-Peaked, High-Magnification Microlensing Events

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simple observational diagnostic based on light curve shape to distinguish planetary from binary causes in double-peaked high-magnification microlensing events, improving interpretation efficiency.

Contribution

It identifies a straightforward, model-independent method to differentiate planetary and binary microlensing events using intra-peak light curve morphology.

Findings

Binary lensing produces smooth, concave intra-peak regions.

Planetary lensing shows boxy or convex intra-peak shapes.

Application to observed events supports the diagnostic's effectiveness.

Abstract

A significant fraction of microlensing planets have been discovered in high-magnification events, and a significant fraction of these events exhibit a double-peak structure at their peak. However, very wide or very close binaries can also produce double-peaked high-magnification events, with the same gross properties as those produced by planets. Traditionally, distinguishing between these two interpretations has relied upon detailed modeling, which is both time-consuming and generally does not provide insight into the observable properties that allow discrimination between these two classes of models. We study the morphologies of these two classes of double-peaked high-magnification events, and identify a simple diagnostic that can be used to immediately distinguish between perturbations caused by planetary and binary companions, without detailed modeling. This diagnostic is based on the difference in the shape of the intra-peak region of the light curves. The shape is smooth and concave for binary lensing, while it tends to be either boxy or convex for planetary lensing. In planetary lensing this intra-peak morphology is due to the small, weak cusp of the planetary central caustic located between the two stronger cusps. We apply this diagnostic to five observed double-peaked high-magnification events to infer their underlying nature. A corollary of our study is that good coverage of the intra-peak region of double-peaked high-magnification events is likely to be important for their unique interpretation.