ORCID Profile
0000-0002-9881-4760
Current Organisation
University of Tasmania
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Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 18-08-2023
Abstract: We present an analysis of microlensing event OGLE-2019-BLG-0825. This event was identified as a planetary candidate by preliminary modeling. We find that significant residuals from the best-fit static binary-lens model exist and a xallarap effect can fit the residuals very well and significantly improves χ 2 values. On the other hand, by including the xallarap effect in our models, we find that binary-lens parameters such as mass ratio, q , and separation, s , cannot be constrained well. However, we also find that the parameters for the source system such as the orbital period and semimajor axis are consistent between all the models we analyzed. We therefore constrain the properties of the source system better than the properties of the lens system. The source system comprises a G-type main-sequence star orbited by a brown dwarf with a period of P ∼ 5 days. This analysis is the first to demonstrate that the xallarap effect does affect binary-lens parameters in planetary events. It would not be common for the presence or absence of the xallarap effect to affect lens parameters in events with long orbital periods of the source system or events with transits to caustics, but in other cases, such as this event, the xallarap effect can affect binary-lens parameters.
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 15-07-2021
Abstract: We present Keck/NIRC2 adaptive optics imaging of planetary microlensing event MOA-2007-BLG-400 that resolves the lens star system from the source. We find that the MOA-2007-BLG-400L planetary system consists of a 1.71 ± 0.27 M Jup planet orbiting a 0.69 ± 0.04 M ⊙ K-dwarf host star at a distance of 6.89 ± 0.77 kpc from the Sun. So, this planetary system probably resides in the Galactic bulge. The planet–host star projected separation is only weakly constrained due to the close-wide light-curve degeneracy the 2 σ projected separation ranges are 0.6–1.0 au and 4.7–7.7 au for close and wide solutions, respectively. This host mass is at the top end of the range of masses predicted by a standard Bayesian analysis. Our Keck follow-up program has now measured lens-source separations for six planetary microlensing events, and five of these six events have host star masses above the median prediction under the assumption that assumes that all stars have an equal chance of hosting planets detectable by microlensing. This suggests that more massive stars may be more likely to host planets of a fixed mass ratio that orbit near or beyond the snow line. These results also indicate the importance of host star mass measurements for exoplanets found by microlensing. The microlensing survey imaging data from NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (formerly WFIRST) mission will be doing mass measurements like this for a huge number of planetary events.
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 21-05-2021
Abstract: The microlensing event OGLE-2017-BLG-1434 features a cold super-Earth planet that is 1 of 11 microlensing planets with a planet–host-star mass ratio of q 1 × 10 −4 . We provide an additional mass–distance constraint on the lens host using near-infrared adaptive optics photometry from Keck/NIRC2. We are able to determine a flux excess of K L = 16.96 ± 0.11, which most likely comes entirely from the lens star. Combining this with constraints from the large Einstein ring radius, θ E = 1.40 ± 0.09 mas, and OGLE parallax we confirm this event as a super-Earth with a mass of m p = 4.43 ± 0.25 M ⊕ . This system lies at a distance of D L = 0.86 ± 0.05 kpc from Earth and the lens star has a mass of M L = 0.234 ± 0.012 M ⊙ . We confirm that with a star–planet mass ratio of q = 0.57 × 10 −4 , OGLE-2017-BLG-1434 lies near the inflexion point of the planet–host mass-ratio power law.
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 07-2022
Abstract: We report the first unambiguous detection and mass measurement of an isolated stellar-mass black hole (BH). We used the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to carry out precise astrometry of the source star of the long-duration ( t E ≃ 270 days), high-magnification microlensing event MOA-2011-BLG-191/OGLE-2011-BLG-0462 (hereafter designated as MOA-11-191/OGLE-11-462), in the direction of the Galactic bulge. HST imaging, conducted at eight epochs over an interval of 6 yr, reveals a clear relativistic astrometric deflection of the background star’s apparent position. Ground-based photometry of MOA-11-191/OGLE-11-462 shows a parallactic signature of the effect of Earth’s motion on the microlensing light curve. Combining the HST astrometry with the ground-based light curve and the derived parallax, we obtain a lens mass of 7.1 ± 1.3 M ⊙ and a distance of 1.58 ± 0.18 kpc. We show that the lens emits no detectable light, which, along with having a mass higher than is possible for a white dwarf or neutron star, confirms its BH nature. Our analysis also provides an absolute proper motion for the BH. The proper motion is offset from the mean motion of Galactic disk stars at similar distances by an amount corresponding to a transverse space velocity of ∼45 km s −1 , suggesting that the BH received a “natal kick” from its supernova explosion. Previous mass determinations for stellar-mass BHs have come from radial velocity measurements of Galactic X-ray binaries and from gravitational radiation emitted by merging BHs in binary systems in external galaxies. Our mass measurement is the first for an isolated stellar-mass BH using any technique.
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 31-08-2022
Abstract: We report the light-curve analysis for the event MOA-2020-BLG-135, which leads to the discovery of a new Neptune-class planet, MOA-2020-BLG-135Lb. With a derived mass ratio of q = 1.52 − 0.31 + 0.39 × 10 − 4 and separation s ≈ 1, the planet lies exactly at the break and likely peak of the exoplanet mass-ratio function derived by the Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics (MOA) Collaboration. We estimate the properties of the lens system based on a Galactic model and considering two different Bayesian priors: one assuming that all stars have an equal planet-hosting probability and the other that planets are more likely to orbit more-massive stars. With a uniform host mass prior, we predict that the lens system is likely to be a planet of mass m planet = 11.3 − 6.9 + 19.2 M ⊕ and a host star of mass M host = 0.23 − 0.14 + 0.39 M ⊙ , located at a distance D L = 7.9 − 1.0 + 1.0 kpc . With a prior that holds that planet occurrence scales in proportion to the host-star mass, the estimated lens system properties are m planet = 25 − 15 + 22 M ⊕ , M host = 0.53 − 0.32 + 0.42 M ⊙ , and D L = 8.3 − 1.0 + 0.9 kpc . This planet qualifies for inclusion in the extended MOA-II exoplanet microlens s le.
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 23-01-2020
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 26-10-2022
Abstract: We report new results for the gravitational microlensing target OGLE-2011-BLG-0950 from adaptive optics images using the Keck Observatory. The original analysis by Choi et al. and reanalysis by Suzuki et al. report degenerate solutions between planetary and stellar binary lens systems. This particular case is the most important type of degeneracy for exoplanet demographics because the distinction between a planetary mass or stellar binary companion has direct consequences for microlensing exoplanet statistics. The 8 and 10 yr baselines allow us to directly measure a relative proper motion of 4.20 ± 0.21 mas yr −1 , confirming the detection of the lens star system and ruling out the planetary companion models that predict a ∼4× smaller relative proper motion. The Keck data also rule out the wide stellar binary solution unless one of the components is a stellar remnant. The combination of the lens brightness and close stellar binary light-curve parameters yields primary and secondary star masses of M A = 1.12 − 0.09 + 0.11 and M B = 0.47 − 0.10 + 0.13 M ☉ at a distance of D L = 6.70 − 0.30 + 0.55 kpc and a projected separation of 0.39 − 0.04 + 0.05 au. Assuming that the predicted proper motions are measurably different, the high-resolution imaging method described here can be used to disentangle this degeneracy for events observed by the Roman exoplanet microlensing survey using Roman images taken near the beginning or end of the survey.
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 10-05-0010
Abstract: OGLE-2016-BLG-1093 is a planetary microlensing event that is part of the statistical Spitzer microlens parallax s le. The precise measurement of the microlens parallax effect for this event, combined with the measurement of finite-source effects, leads to a direct measurement of the lens masses and system distance, M host =0.38–0.57 M ⊙ and m p = 0.59–0.87 M Jup , and the system is located at the Galactic bulge ( D L ∼ 8.1 kpc). Because this was a high-magnification event, we are also able to empirically show that the “cheap-space parallax” concept produces well-constrained (and consistent) results for ∣ π E ∣. This demonstrates that this concept can be extended to many two-body lenses. Finally, we briefly explore systematics in the Spitzer light curve in this event and show that their potential impact is strongly mitigated by the color constraint.
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 06-01-2021
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 17-08-2020
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 07-2022
Abstract: We present the analysis of five black hole candidates identified from gravitational microlensing surveys. Hubble Space Telescope astrometric data and densely s led light curves from ground-based microlensing surveys are fit with a single-source, single-lens microlensing model in order to measure the mass and luminosity of each lens and determine if it is a black hole. One of the five targets (OGLE-2011-BLG-0462/MOA-2011-BLG-191 or OB110462 for short) shows a significant mas coherent astrometric shift, little to no lens flux, and has an inferred lens mass of 1.6–4.4 M ⊙ . This makes OB110462 the first definitive discovery of a compact object through astrometric microlensing and it is most likely either a neutron star or a low-mass black hole. This compact-object lens is relatively nearby (0.70–1.92 kpc) and has a slow transverse motion of km s −1 . OB110462 shows significant tension between models well fit to photometry versus astrometry, making it currently difficult to distinguish between a neutron star and a black hole. Additional observations and modeling with more complex system geometries, such as binary sources, are needed to resolve the puzzling nature of this object. For the remaining four candidates, the lens masses are M ⊙ , and they are unlikely to be black holes two of the four are likely white dwarfs or neutron stars. We compare the full s le of five candidates to theoretical expectations on the number of black holes in the Milky Way (∼10 8 ) and find reasonable agreement given the small s le size.
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 14-02-2020
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 24-03-2023
Abstract: We analyze the MOA-2020-BLG-208 gravitational microlensing event and present the discovery and characterization of a new planet, MOA-2020-BLG-208Lb, with an estimated sub-Saturn mass. With a mass ratio q = 3.17 − 0.26 + 0.28 × 10 − 4 , the planet lies near the peak of the mass-ratio function derived by the MOA collaboration and near the edge of expected s le sensitivity. For these estimates we provide results using two mass-law priors: one assuming that all stars have an equal planet-hosting probability, and the other assuming that planets are more likely to orbit around more massive stars. In the first scenario, we estimate that the lens system is likely to be a planet of mass m planet = 46 − 24 + 42 M ⊕ and a host star of mass M host = 0.43 − 0.23 + 0.39 M ⊙ , located at a distance D L = 7.49 − 1.13 + 0.99 kpc . For the second scenario, we estimate m planet = 69 − 34 + 37 M ⊕ , M host = 0.66 − 0.32 + 0.35 M ⊙ , and D L = 7.81 − 0.93 + 0.93 kpc . The planet has a projected separation as a fraction of the Einstein ring radius s = 1.3807 − 0.0018 + 0.0018 . As a cool sub-Saturn-mass planet, this planet adds to a growing collection of evidence for revised planetary formation models.
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 02-08-2022
Abstract: We report on the observations, analysis and interpretation of the microlensing event MOA-2019-BLG-008. The observed anomaly in the photometric light curve is best described through a binary lens model. In this model, the source did not cross caustics and no finite-source effects were observed. Therefore, the angular Einstein ring radius θ E cannot be measured from the light curve alone. However, the large event duration, t E ∼ 80 days, allows a precise measurement of the microlensing parallax π E . In addition to the constraints on the angular radius θ * and the apparent brightness I s of the source, we employ the Besançon and GalMod galactic models to estimate the physical properties of the lens. We find excellent agreement between the predictions of the two galactic models: the companion is likely a resident of the brown dwarf desert with a mass M p ∼ 30 M Jup , and the host is a main-sequence dwarf star. The lens lies along the line of sight to the Galactic bulge, at a distance of ≤4 kpc. We estimate that in about 10 yr the lens and source will be separated by ∼55 mas, and it will be possible to confirm the exact nature of the lensing system by using high-resolution imaging from ground- or space-based observatories.
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
No related grants have been discovered for Aikaterini Vandorou.