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S. Rhie, D. Bennett (U. Notre Dame)
Gravitational microlensing is a superb exoplanet search technique. The merits include: mass sensitivity to all range of planets down to Mars; the detection window is partially inclusive of the habitable zones; massive moons of the exoplanets can be found; the duration of the events is typically less than two months, ~ 70 times shorter than the 12 year orbital period of Jupiter; it is largely free of selection bias because microlensing occurs by chance, and "oddities" such as circumbinary planets and multiple planets will be detected with a fair share of chance; it is the only method that can probe the Galactic and extragalactic families of planets that may orbit ordinary stars.
Most of the microlensing planets will be discovered as gravitational (planetary) binary lenses. However, some of them will be discovered as higher multiple lens systems. Here, we discuss the gravitational triple lens systems which can produce up to 10 images. Discussion subjects include: classification of caustics, effect of three-body instabilities, numerical complications, and discovery perspective of multiple planet systems with GEST (Galactic Exoplanet Survey Telescope).
This work has been supported in part by the NASA and the NSF.
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The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: srhie@nd.edu