Microlensing Discovery and Characterization Efficiency in the Vera C. Rubin Legacy Survey of Space and Time

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Hauptverfasser: Abrams, Natasha S., Hundertmark, Markus P. G., Khakpash, Somayeh, Street, Rachel A., Jones, R. Lynne, Lu, Jessica R., Bachelet, Etienne, Tsapras, Yiannis, Moniez, Marc, Blaineauu, Tristan, Di Stefano, Rosanne, Makler, Martin, Varela, Anibal, Rabus, Markus
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2023
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author Abrams, Natasha S.
Hundertmark, Markus P. G.
Khakpash, Somayeh
Street, Rachel A.
Jones, R. Lynne
Lu, Jessica R.
Bachelet, Etienne
Tsapras, Yiannis
Moniez, Marc
Blaineauu, Tristan
Di Stefano, Rosanne
Makler, Martin
Varela, Anibal
Rabus, Markus
author_facet Abrams, Natasha S.
Hundertmark, Markus P. G.
Khakpash, Somayeh
Street, Rachel A.
Jones, R. Lynne
Lu, Jessica R.
Bachelet, Etienne
Tsapras, Yiannis
Moniez, Marc
Blaineauu, Tristan
Di Stefano, Rosanne
Makler, Martin
Varela, Anibal
Rabus, Markus
contents The Vera C. Rubin Legacy Survey of Space and Time will discover thousands of microlensing events across the Milky Way Galaxy, allowing for the study of populations of exoplanets, stars, and compact objects. We evaluate numerous survey strategies simulated in the Rubin Operation Simulations (OpSims) to assess the discovery and characterization efficiencies of microlensing events. We have implemented three metrics in the Rubin Metric Analysis Framework: a discovery metric and two characterization metrics, where one estimates how well the lightcurve is covered and the other quantifies how precisely event parameters can be determined. We also assess the characterizability of microlensing parallax, critical for detection of free-floating black hole lenses. We find that, given Rubin's baseline cadence, the discovery and characterization efficiency will be higher for longer duration and larger parallax events. Microlensing discovery efficiency is dominated by the observing footprint, where more time spent looking at regions of high stellar density including the Galactic bulge, Galactic plane, and Magellanic clouds, leads to higher discovery and characterization rates. However, if the observations are stretched over too wide an area, including low-priority areas of the Galactic plane with fewer stars and higher extinction, event characterization suffers by > 10%. This could impact exoplanet, binary star, and compact object events alike. We find that some rolling strategies (where Rubin focuses on a fraction of the sky in alternating years) in the Galactic bulge can lead to a 15-20% decrease in microlensing parallax characterization, so rolling strategies should be chosen carefully to minimize losses.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2309_15310
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Microlensing Discovery and Characterization Efficiency in the Vera C. Rubin Legacy Survey of Space and Time
Abrams, Natasha S.
Hundertmark, Markus P. G.
Khakpash, Somayeh
Street, Rachel A.
Jones, R. Lynne
Lu, Jessica R.
Bachelet, Etienne
Tsapras, Yiannis
Moniez, Marc
Blaineauu, Tristan
Di Stefano, Rosanne
Makler, Martin
Varela, Anibal
Rabus, Markus
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
The Vera C. Rubin Legacy Survey of Space and Time will discover thousands of microlensing events across the Milky Way Galaxy, allowing for the study of populations of exoplanets, stars, and compact objects. We evaluate numerous survey strategies simulated in the Rubin Operation Simulations (OpSims) to assess the discovery and characterization efficiencies of microlensing events. We have implemented three metrics in the Rubin Metric Analysis Framework: a discovery metric and two characterization metrics, where one estimates how well the lightcurve is covered and the other quantifies how precisely event parameters can be determined. We also assess the characterizability of microlensing parallax, critical for detection of free-floating black hole lenses. We find that, given Rubin's baseline cadence, the discovery and characterization efficiency will be higher for longer duration and larger parallax events. Microlensing discovery efficiency is dominated by the observing footprint, where more time spent looking at regions of high stellar density including the Galactic bulge, Galactic plane, and Magellanic clouds, leads to higher discovery and characterization rates. However, if the observations are stretched over too wide an area, including low-priority areas of the Galactic plane with fewer stars and higher extinction, event characterization suffers by > 10%. This could impact exoplanet, binary star, and compact object events alike. We find that some rolling strategies (where Rubin focuses on a fraction of the sky in alternating years) in the Galactic bulge can lead to a 15-20% decrease in microlensing parallax characterization, so rolling strategies should be chosen carefully to minimize losses.
title Microlensing Discovery and Characterization Efficiency in the Vera C. Rubin Legacy Survey of Space and Time
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.15310