NSF-BSF: The Frequency and Mass-Ratio Distribution of Super-Earths in KMTNet

由史密森学会天体物理天文台领导的一个小组将测量遥远恒星周围行星的频率和质量，这些行星在宽轨道上运行，质量是地球的几倍。该调查将使用地面数据，调查结果将帮助我们了解太阳系和人类在宇宙中存在的背景。此外，调查小组将在数据集中搜索黑洞。该项目将通过培训博士后和为本科生提供参与尖端研究的机会来提高劳动力。 它还将加强美国、以色列和大韩民国科学家之间的联系。该项目得到了美国国家科学基金会和美国-以色列两国科学基金会的支持，以进一步加强两国天体物理界之间的合作。该项目的核心是开发一种算法，以客观地搜索和探测来自韩国微透镜望远镜网络（KMTNet）调查的10，000多个事件中的行星。这一事件样本比以前的工作大几倍。搜索算法将产生一个统计上可靠的行星样本。注入和回收方法将用于评估检测算法的有效性，并计算单个光变曲线的行星极限。将这些极限与探测到的行星相结合，将产生行星的质量比分布和频率。特别重要的是超级地球行星，在本研究所探测的轨道分离处无法通过其他技术检测到。该项目还将开发一种新的技术，用于在KMTNet图像上测量天体测量，以寻找黑洞的微透镜效应。如果KMTNet数据集中存在由恒星质量黑洞造成的微透镜事件，那么这些黑洞的质量应该是太阳质量的5到30倍。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估而被认为值得支持。

A team led by the Smithsonian Institution Astrophysical Observatory will measure the frequency and masses of planets around distant stars in wide orbits down to the mass of several times the Earths. The survey will use ground-based data and the findings will help us understand the context in which the Solar System and humanity exist in the Universe. In addition, the investigating team will search for black holes within the dataset. This project will advance the workforce by training a postdoc and providing undergraduate students with the opportunity to participate in cutting edge research. It will also strengthen ties between scientists in the United States, Israel, and the Republic of Korea. This project is supported by both the National Science Foundation and the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation to further collaborations between the astrophysical communities in the two countries. The core of the project is to develop an algorithm to objectively search for, and detect, planets in over 10,000 events from the Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) survey. This sample of events is a factor of several larger than previous work. A search algorithm will result in a statistically robust sample of planets. Injection and recovery methods will be used to evaluate the efficacy of the detection algorithm and to calculate limits on planets for the individual light curves. Combining these limits with the detected planets will yield the mass-ratio distribution and frequency of planets. Of particular importance are super-Earth planets, which cannot be detected by other techniques at the orbital separations probed by this study. This project will also develop a new technique for measuring astrometry on the KMTNet images in order to search for microlensing by black holes. If there are microlensing events in the KMTNet dataset due to stellar-mass black holes 5 to 30 times the mass of the Sun, their masses should be measurable with this work.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.