Properties and Detection Limits of Planetary Caustic Perturbation Induced by a Wide-Separation Planet

Abstract

Microlensing experiments are entering a next generation of survey types to monitor a wide field of view continuously with a frequent sampling. The theoretically predicted sensitivity of a planet detection on the lensing parameters can be used for the establishment of observational strategies for maximal planet detections. Hence, we investigate the detection condition of planetary signals caused by the planetary caustic. We calculate the deviation area induced by the planetary caustic for various lensing parameters and find that the deviation area generally increases according to the increase of the source radius. However, after the normalized source radius approaches a certain value the deviation area rapidly decreases and disappears at the same normalized source radius, regardless of the mass ratio and the separation between the planet and its host star. We find a simple relation between the normalized source radius and the deviation threshold for the largest and smallest deviation areas. From this relation we also find an analytic condition for the detection limit of the planetary signal as the function of the source radius and the deviation threshold. In addition, we compare the deviation areas and the light curves between the planetary caustic perturbation and a free-floating planet. We find that the planetary caustic perturbation can be approximated by the single-lensing light curve of the planet itself perturbed by the planetary caustic. Finally, we can expect to find a low-mass planet with the Earth's mass or even that of the Earthʼs moon from the detection condition and conclude that our findings may help for maximal planet detections considering the source type and the photometric accuracy.