Near-Field Microlensing and Its Effects on Stellar Transit Observations by Kepler

Abstract

In this paper, we explore the astrophysical implications of near-field microlensing and its effects on stellar transit observations, with a special emphasis on the Kepler mission. Kepler is a NASA-approved mission whose goal is to detect a large number of extrasolar, earth-like planets by obtaining near-continuous photometry of > 100,000 F, G, and K dwarfs for four years. The expected photometric precision of Kepler is 90 micromag (achieved in 15 minute samples), at which the effect of microlensing by a transiting companion can be significant. For example, for a solar-type primary transited by a white-dwarf secondary, the maximum depth of the transit is 0.01%, which is almost entirely compensated by the microlensing amplification when the white dwarf is at ~0.05 AU. The combined effect of microlensing and transit increases to a net amplification of 150 micromag at an orbital separation of 0.1 AU, and 2.4 millimag at an orbital separation of 1 AU. Thus, the effect of microlensing can be used to break the degeneracy between a planetary-mass object for which the microlensing effect is negligible, and a more massive object of the same size. For brown dwarfs at orbital separations of a few AU, the effect of microlensing is several percent of the transit depth, and hence the microlensing effect must be taken into account in deriving the physical parameters of the brown dwarf. The microlensing signal caused by a neutron star or a black hole in a binary can be several millimag, far exceeding the transit depth, and potentially detectable even from ground-based observations. Kepler will be sensitive to white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes in binaries through their microlensing signatures. These observations can be used to derive the frequency of such compact objects in binaries, and to determine their masses.