KMT-2017-BLG-2820 and the Nature of the Free-Floating Planet Population

TL;DR

This paper reports a new free-floating planet candidate, analyzes its properties, compares it with other candidates, and discusses the implications for the population of unbound planets, suggesting most are likely truly free-floating rather than wide-separation planets.

Contribution

It presents the discovery and analysis of a new FFP candidate and argues that most candidates are genuinely unbound planets based on their properties and population analysis.

Findings

The candidate has an Einstein radius of approximately 6 microarcseconds.

Most FFP candidates are likely unbound planets rather than wide-separation bound planets.

The population suggests these are either sub-Jovian bulge planets or super-Earth disk planets.

Abstract

We report a new free-floating planet (FFP) candidate, KMT-2017-BLG-2820, with Einstein radius $\theta_\e\simeq 6\,\muas$, lens-source relative proper motion $\mu_\rel \simeq 8\,\masyr$, and Einstein timescale $t_\e=6.5\,$hr. It is the third FFP candidate found in an ongoing study of giant-source finite-source point-lens (FSPL) events in the KMTNet data base, and the sixth FSPL FFP candidate overall. We find no significant evidence for a host. Based on their timescale distributions and detection rates, we argue that five of these six FSPL FFP candidates are drawn from the same population as the six point-source point-lens (PSPL) FFP candidates found by \citet{mroz17} in the OGLE-IV data base. The $\theta_\e$ distribution of the FSPL FFPs implies that they are either sub-Jovian planets in the bulge or super-Earths in the disk. However, the apparent "Einstein Desert" ($10\la\theta_\e/\muas\la 30$) would argue for the latter. Whether each of the 12 (6 FSPL and 6 PSPL) FFP candidates is truly an FFP, or simply a very wide-separation planet, can be determined at first adaptive optics (AO) light on 30m telescopes, and earlier for some. If the latter, a second epoch of AO observations could measure the projected planet-host separation with a precision ${\cal O}(10\,\au)$. At the present time, the balance of evidence favors the unbound-planet hypothesis.