WFIRST Planet Masses from Microlens Parallax

Abstract

I present a method using only a few ground-based observations of magnified microlensing events to routinely measure the parallaxes of WFIRST events if WFIRST is in an L2 orbit. This could be achieved for all events with Amax > 30 using target-ofopportunity observations of select WFIRST events, or with a complementary, ground-based survey of the WFIRST field, which can push beyond this magnification limit. When combined with a measurement of the angular size of the Einstein ring, which is almost always measured in planetary events, these parallax measurements will routinely give measurements of the lens masses and hence, the absolute masses of the planets. They can also lead to mass measurements for dark, isolated objects such as brown dwarfs, free-floating planets, and stellar remnants if the size of the Einstein ring is measured.

11 pages, 2 figures. Replaced 10/10/13 to reflect the version published in ApJL