KMT-2021-BLG-1898: Planetary microlensing event involved with binary source stars

TL;DR

This paper analyzes a microlensing event with a unique anomaly, proposing a binary source and planetary lens model that explains the data better than alternative models, and estimates the planet's properties.

Contribution

It introduces a novel interpretation of a microlensing anomaly as caused by a binary source and planetary lens, and confirms this with detailed modeling and Bayesian analysis.

Findings

The anomaly is best explained by a 2L2S model with a planetary system and binary source.

The planetary lens has a mass of about 0.7-0.8 Jupiter masses.

The planet orbits an early M dwarf at a projected separation of 1.9 to 3.0 AU.

Abstract

The light curve of the microlensing event KMT-2021-BLG-1898 exhibits a short-term central anomaly with double-bump features that cannot be explained by the usual binary-lens or binary-source interpretations. With the aim of interpreting the anomaly, we analyze the lensing light curve under various sophisticated models. We find that the anomaly is explained by a model, in which both the lens and source are binaries (2L2S model). For this interpretation, the lens is a planetary system with a planet/host mass ratio of $q\sim 1.5\times 10^{-3}$, and the source is a binary composed of a turn off or a subgiant star and a mid K dwarf. The double-bump feature of the anomaly can also be depicted by a triple-lens model (3L1S model), in which the lens is a planetary system containing two planets. Among the two interpretations, the 2L2S model is favored over the 3L1S model not only because it yields a better fit to the data, by $\Delta\chi^2=[14.3$--18.5], but also the Einstein radii derived independently from the two stars of the binary source result in consistent values. According to the 2L2S interpretation, KMT-2021-BLG-1898 is the third planetary lensing event occurring on a binary stellar system, following MOA-2010-BLG-117 and KMT-2018-BLG-1743. Under the 2L2S interpretation, we identify two solutions resulting from the close-wide degeneracy in determining the planet-host separation. From a Bayesian analysis, we estimate that the planet has a mass of $\sim 0.7$--0.8~$M_{\rm J}$, and it orbits an early M dwarf host with a mass of $\sim 0.5~M_\odot$. The projected planet-host separation is $\sim 1.9$~AU and $\sim 3.0$~AU according to the close and wide solutions, respectively.