EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY

KMT-2023-BLG-2669: Ninth Free-floating Planet Candidate with θ E Measurements

DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/ad6b12 Bibcode: 2024AJ....168..152J

Han, Cheongho; Lee, Chung-Uk; Zang, Weicheng; Albrow, Michael D.; Chung, Sun-Ju; Gould, Andrew; Hwang, Kyu-Ha; Jung, Youn Kil; Ryu, Yoon-Hyun; Shvartzvald, Yossi; Shin, In-Gu; Yee, Jennifer C.; Yang, Hongjing; Cha, Sang-Mok; Kim, Dong-Jin; Kim, Seung-Lee; Lee, Dong-Joo; Lee, Yongseok; Park, Byeong-Gon; Pogge, Richard W.

South Korea, China, Germany, United States, New Zealand, Israel

Abstract

We report a free-floating planet (FFP) candidate identified from the analysis of the microlensing event KMT-2023-BLG-2669. The lensing light curve is characterized by a short duration (≲3 days) and a small amplitude (≲0.7 mag). From the analysis, we find an Einstein timescale of t E ⋍ 0.33 days and an Einstein radius of θ E ⋍ 4.41 μas. These measurements enable us to infer the lens mass as M=8M⊕πrel/0.1mas‑1 , where π rel is the relative lens–source parallax. The inference implies that the lens is a sub-Neptune- to Saturn-mass object, depending on its unknown distance. This is the ninth isolated planetary mass microlens with θ E < 10 μas, which is a useful threshold for an FFP candidate. We conduct extensive searches for possible signals of a host star in the light curve, but find no strong evidence for the host. We investigate the possibility of using late-time high-resolution imaging to probe for possible hosts. In particular, we discuss the case of finite-source point-lens FFP candidates, for which it would be possible to search for very-wide-separation hosts immediately, although such searches are "high risk, high reward."

2024 • The Astronomical Journal
Gaia 6
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