The First Neptune Analog or Super-Earth with Neptune-like Orbit: MOA-2013-BLG-605Lb

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of MOA-2013-BLG-605Lb, the first Neptune analog or super-Earth with a Neptune-like orbit, revealing that such low-mass planets at wide separations are likely common in the galaxy.

Contribution

It presents the first detection of a Neptune-like exoplanet with a Neptune-like orbit, introduces a new degeneracy in microlensing parallax analysis, and discusses implications for planet formation.

Findings

Discovery of a Neptune-mass planet at 9-14 times the snow-line.

Identification of a new 'wide degeneracy' in microlensing parallax.

Evidence that low-mass planets with Neptune-like orbits are common.

Abstract

We present the discovery of the first Neptune analog exoplanet or super-Earth with Neptune-like orbit, MOA-2013-BLG-605Lb. This planet has a mass similar to that of Neptune or a super-Earth and it orbits at $9\sim 14$ times the expected position of the snow-line, $a_{\rm snow}$, which is similar to Neptune's separation of $ 11\,a_{\rm snow}$ from the Sun. The planet/host-star mass ratio is $q=(3.6\pm0.7)\times 10^{-4}$ and the projected separation normalized by the Einstein radius is $s=2.39\pm0.05$. There are three degenerate physical solutions and two of these are due to a new type of degeneracy in the microlensing parallax parameters, which we designate "the wide degeneracy". The three models have (i) a Neptune-mass planet with a mass of $M_{\rm p}=21_{-7}^{+6} M_{Earth}$ orbiting a low-mass M-dwarf with a mass of $M_{\rm h}=0.19_{-0.06}^{+0.05} M_\odot$, (ii) a mini-Neptune with $M_{\rm p}= 7.9_{-1.2}^{+1.8} M_{Earth}$ orbiting a brown dwarf host with $M_{\rm h}=0.068_{-0.011}^{+0.019} M_\odot$ and (iii) a super-Earth with $M_{\rm p}= 3.2_{-0.3}^{+0.5} M_{Earth}$ orbiting a low-mass brown dwarf host with $M_{\rm h}=0.025_{-0.004}^{+0.005} M_\odot$ which is slightly favored. The 3-D planet-host separations are 4.6$_{-1.2}^{+4.7}$ AU, 2.1$_{-0.2}^{+1.0}$ AU and 0.94$_{-0.02}^{+0.67}$ AU, which are $8.9_{-1.4}^{+10.5}$, $12_{-1}^{+7}$ or $14_{-1}^{+11}$ times larger than $a_{\rm snow}$ for these models, respectively. The Keck AO observation confirm that the lens is faint. This discovery suggests that low-mass planets with Neptune-like orbit are common. So processes similar to the one that formed Neptune in our own Solar System or cold super-Earth may be common in other solar systems.