Planetesimal Disk Microlensing

Details Planetesimal Disk Microlensing Planetesimal Disk Microlensing

2009-03-30

arxiv.org/abs/0903.5304v2

Astrophys.J.707:621-631,2009

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

15 pages, 8 figures (emulateapj). Accepted by ApJ

Scientific paper

10.1088/0004-637X/707/1/621

Motivated by debris disk studies, we investigate the gravitational microlensing of background starlight by a planetesimal disk around a foreground star. We use dynamical survival models to construct a plausible example of a planetesimal disk and study its microlensing properties using established ideas of microlensing by small bodies. When a solar-type source star passes behind a planetesimal disk, the microlensing light curve may exhibit short-term, low-amplitude residuals caused by planetesimals several orders of magnitude below Earth mass. The minimum planetesimal mass probed depends on the photometric sensitivity and the size of the source star, and is lower when the planetesimal lens is located closer to us. Planetesimal lenses may be found more nearby than stellar lenses because the steepness of the planetesimal mass distribution changes how the microlensing signal depends on the lens/source distance ratio. Microlensing searches for planetesimals require essentially continuous monitoring programs that are already feasible and can potentially set constraints on models of debris disks, the supposed extrasolar analogues of Kuiper belts.

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