Identification and characterization of the host stars in planetary microlensing with ELTs

TL;DR

This paper discusses using Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs) to directly image and resolve host stars in microlensing events, enabling precise mass measurements of exoplanets beyond 1 AU and improving understanding of planet formation.

Contribution

It proposes a method to routinely measure exoplanet masses beyond 1 AU via direct imaging of host stars in microlensing events using ELTs, which is a novel approach.

Findings

Potential to measure exoplanet masses beyond 1 AU

Improved determination of planet occurrence rates beyond the snow line

Enhanced understanding of planet formation mechanisms

Abstract

Microlensing offers a unique opportunity to probe exoplanets that are temperate and beyond the snow line, as small as Jovian satellites, at extragalactic distance, and even free floating exoplanets, regimes where the sensitivity of other methods drops dramatically. This is because microlensing does not depend on the brightness of the planetary host star. The microlensing method thus provides great leverage in studying the exoplanets beyond the snow line, posing tests to the core accretion mechanism, especially on the run-away phase of gas accretion to form giant planets. Here we propose to robustly and routinely measure the masses of exoplanets beyond 1 AU from their host stars with the microlensing method; our experiment relies on directly imaging and resolving the host star (namely the lens) from the background source of the microlensing events, which requires the high spatial resolution delivered by the ELTs. A direct result from this project will be planet occurrence rate beyond the snow line, which will enable us to discern different planet formation mechanisms.