Spitzer observations of OGLE-2015-BLG-1212 reveal a new path toward breaking strong microlens degeneracies

Spitzer microlensing parallax observations of OGLE-2015-BLG-1212decisively break a degeneracy between planetary and binary solutionsthat is somewhat ambiguous when only ground-based data are considered.Only eight viable models survive out of an initial set of 32 localminima in the parameter space. These models clearly indicate that thelens is a stellar binary system possibly located within the bulge of ourGalaxy, ruling out the planetary alternative. We argue that severaltypes of discrete degeneracies can be broken via such space-basedparallax observations.

Citation

Bozza , V , Shvartzvald , Y , Udalski , A , Calchi Novati , S , Bond , I A , Han , C , Hundertmark , M , Poleski , R , Pawlak , M , Szymański , M K , Skowron , J , Mróz , P , Kozłowski , S , Wyrzykowski , Ł , Pietrukowicz , P , Soszyński , I , Ulaczyk , K , Beichman , C , Bryden , G , Carey , S , Fausnaugh , M , Gaudi , B S , Gould , A , Henderson , C B , Pogge , R W , Wibking , B , Yee , J C , Zhu , W , Abe , F , Asakura , Y , Barry , R K , Bennett , D P , Bhattacharya , A , Donachie , M , Freeman , M , Fukui , A , Hirao , Y , Inayama , K , Itow , Y , Koshimoto , N , Li , M C A , Ling , C H , Masuda , K , Matsubara , Y , Muraki , Y , Nagakane , M , Nishioka , T , Ohnishi , K , Oyokawa , H , Rattenbury , N , Saito , T , Sharan , A , Sullivan , D J , Sumi , T , Suzuki , D , Tristram , P J , Wakiyama , Y , Yonehara , A , Choi , J-Y , Park , H , Jung , Y K , Shin , I-G , Albrow , M D , Park , B-G , Kim , S-L , Lee , C-U , Cha , S-M , Kim , D-J , Lee , Y , Dominik , M , Jørgensen , U G , Andersen , M I , Bramich , D M , Burgdorf , M J , Ciceri , S , D’Ago , G , Evans , D F , Figuera Jaimes , R , Gu , S-H , Hinse , T C , Kains , N , Kerins , E , Korhonen , H , Kuffmeier , M , Mancini , L , Popovas , A , Rabus , M , Rahvar , S , Rasmussen , R T , Scarpetta , G , Skottfelt , J , Snodgrass , C , Southworth , J , Surdej , J , Unda-Sanzana , E , von Essen , C , Wang , Y-B , Wertz , O , Maoz , D , Friedmann , M & Kaspi , S 2016 , ' Spitzer observations of OGLE-2015-BLG-1212 reveal a new path toward breaking strong microlens degeneracies ' , Astrophysical Journal , vol. 820 , no. 1 , 79 . https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/820/1/79

Publication

Astrophysical Journal

Status

Peer reviewed

DOI

https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/820/1/79

ISSN

0004-637X

Type

Journal article

Rights

© 2016. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the final published version of the work, which was originally published at: https://dx.doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/820/1/79

Description

The OGLE project has received funding from the National Science Centre, Poland, grant MAESTRO 2014/14/A/ST9/00121 to A.U. Work by Y.S. and C.B.H. was supported by an appointment to the NASA Postdoctoral Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, administered by Oak Ridge Associated Universities through a contract with NASA. Work by C.H. was supported by Creative Research Initiative Program (2009-0081561) of National Research Foundation of Korea. J.C.Y., A.G., and S.C.N. acknowledge support by JPL grant 1500811. Work by W.Z. and A.G. was supported by NSF AST 1516842. Work by J.C.Y. was performed under contract with the California Institute of Technology (Caltech)/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) funded by NASA through the Sagan Fellowship Program executed by the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute. T.S. acknowledges the financial support from the JSPS, JSPS23103002, JSPS24253004, and JSPS26247023. The MOA project is supported by grants JSPS25103508 and JSPS23340064.

Collections

University of St Andrews Research

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10023/8584