The WFIRST Exoplanet Microlensing Survey
astro-ph.EP
/ Authors
David P. Bennett, Rachel Akeson, Jay Anderson, Lee Armus, Etienne Bachelet, Vanessa Bailey, Thomas Barclay, Richard Barry, Jean-Phillipe Beaulieu, Andrea Belini
and 64 more authors
Dominic J. Benford, Aparna Bhattacharya, Padi Boyd, Valerio Bozza, Sebastiano Calchi Novati, Kenneth Carpenter, Arnaud Cassan, David Ciardi, Andrew Cole, Knicole Colon, Christian Coutures, Martin Dominik, Pascal Fouque, Kevin Grady, Tyler Groff, Calen B. Henderson, Keith Horne, Christopher Gelino, Dawn Gelino, Jason Kalirai, Stephen Kane, N. Jeremy Kasdin, Jeffrey Kruk
/ Abstract
The Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) was the top ranked large space mission in the 2010 New Worlds, New Horizons decadal survey, and it was formed by merging the science programs of 3 different mission concepts, including the Microlensing Planet Finder (MPF) concept (Bennett \etal\ 2010). The WFIRST science program (Spergel \etal\ 2015) consists of a general observer program, a wavefront controlled technology program, and two targeted science programs: a program to study dark energy, and a statistical census of exoplanets with a microlensing survey, which uses nearly one quarter of WFIRST's observing time in the current design reference mission. The New Worlds, New Horizons (decadal survey) midterm assessment summarizes the science case for the WFIRST exoplanet microlensing survey with this statement: "WFIRST's microlensing census of planets beyond 1 AU will perfectly complement Kepler's census of compact systems, and WFIRST will also be able to detect free-floating planets unbound from their parent stars\rlap."