Systematic KMTNet Planetary Anomaly Search. V. Complete Sample of 2018 Prime-Field

TL;DR

This paper completes the analysis of 2018 KMTNet prime-field microlensing planets, identifying 24 planetary events, and sets the stage for statistical analysis of planet properties based on these findings.

Contribution

It provides a complete sample of 2018 prime-field microlensing planets from KMTNet, including new planetary events, and refines analysis methods for degeneracies in microlensing data.

Findings

Identified 24 planets from 2018 prime-field data.

Unified analysis method for close/wide and inner/outer degeneracies.

Established groundwork for statistical study of planet mass ratios.

Abstract

We complete the analysis of all 2018 prime-field microlensing planets identified by the KMTNet AnomalyFinder. Among the 10 previously unpublished events with clear planetary solutions, 8 are either unambiguously planetary or are very likely to be planetary in nature: OGLE-2018-BLG-1126, KMT-2018-BLG-2004, OGLE-2018-BLG-1647, OGLE-2018-BLG-1367, OGLE-2018-BLG-1544, OGLE-2018-BLG-0932, OGLE-2018-BLG-1212, and KMT-2018-BLG-2718. Combined with the 4 previously published new AnomalyFinder events and 12 previously published (or in preparation) planets that were discovered by eye, thismakes a total of 24 2018 prime-field planets discovered or recovered by AnomalyFinder. Together with a paper in preparation on 2018 sub-prime planets, this work lays the basis for the first statistical analysis of the planet mass-ratio function based on planets identified in KMTNet data. By systematically applying the heuristic analysis of Hwang et al. (2022) to each event, we identify the small modification in their formalism that is needed to unify the so-called close/wide and inner/outer degeneracies, as conjectured by