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# Probing Structures of Distant Extrasolar Planets With Microlensing

## 1 Introduction

Precise radial velocity surveys have detected over 100 planetary companions to FGKM dwarf stars in the solar neighborhood (see http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/planets/catalog for a list of planets and discovery references). Among the interesting trends that have been uncovered in this sample of planets are a positive correlation between the frequency of planets and metallicity of the host stars (Gonzalez, 1997, 1998; Laughlin, 2000; Santos, Israelian, & Mayor, 2001; Reid, 2002), a paucity of massive, close-in planets (Zucker & Mazeh, 2002; Pätzold & Rauer, 2002), and a ‘piling-up’ of less-massive, close-in planets near periods of $`P3\mathrm{days}`$. This latter trend is important because the number of planets which transit their parent stars is roughly proportional to $`1/a`$, where $`a`$ is the semi-major axis. The discovery and interpretations of these global trends provide clues to the physical mechanisms that affect planetary formation, migration, and survival.

A somewhat different way of obtaining clues about the physical processes at work in planetary systems is to acquire detailed information about individual planets. With radial velocity measurements alone, such information is limited only to the minimum mass $`M_\mathrm{p}\mathrm{sin}i`$ of the planet, and the semi-major axis $`a`$ and eccentricity of its orbit. However, if the planet also transits its parent star, then it is possible to infer considerably more information. A basic transit measurement allows one to infer the radius, mass, and density of the planet, as has been done with the only known transiting extrasolar planet, HD209458b (Charbonneau et al, 2000; Henry et al., 2000). This in turn allows one to place constraints on the planet’s orbital migration history (Burrows et al., 2000). More detailed photometric and spectroscopic data during (and outside of) the transit can be used to study the composition of, and physical processes in, the planetary atmosphere (Seager & Sasselov, 2000; Seager, Whitney, & Sasselov, 2000; Charbonneau et al., 2002; Brown, Libbrecht, & Charbonneau, 2002), measure the oblateness, and thus constrain the rotation rate, of the planet (Hui & Seager, 2002; Seager & Hui, 2002), and to search for rings and satellites associated with the planet (Sartoretti & Schneider, 1999; Schneider, 1999; Brown et al., 2001).

The ‘classical’ method of searching for planets via microlensing was first proposed by Mao & Paczyński (1991), and subsequently further developed by Gould & Loeb (1992). In this method, a planetary companion to the primary lens star produces a small perturbation atop the smooth, symmetric lensing light curve created by the primary. The microlensing method has several important advantages over other methods, as well as several disadvantages (see Gaudi 2003 for a review). The most important advantage is that the strength of the planet’s signal depends weakly on the planet/primary mass ratio and thus it is the only currently feasible method to detect Earth-mass planets (Bennett & Rhie, 1996). The other advantage is that it enables one to detect planets located at large distances of up to several tens of kiloparsecs. However, it also has disadvantages, the most important of which is that the only useful information one can obtain is the mass ratio between the planet and the primary. Thus classical microlensing searches only allow one to identify the existence of the planet, and build statistics about the types of planetary systems, but cannot be used to obtain detailed information about the discovered planets. This is especially problematic in light of the fact that follow-up of the discovered systems will generally be difficult or impossible.

Recently, Graff & Gaudi (2000) and Lewis & Ibata (2000) proposed a novel method of detecting planets via microlensing. They suggested that one could detect close-in giant planets orbiting the source stars of caustic-crossing binary-lens events via accurate and detailed photometry of the binary-lens light curve. In this method, the planet can be detected because the light from the planet is sufficiently magnified during the caustic crossing to produce a noticeable deviation to the lensing light curve of the primary. The magnitude of the deviation is $`\delta _\mathrm{p}ϵ_\mathrm{p}\rho _\mathrm{p}^{1/2}`$, where $`ϵ_\mathrm{p}`$ is the ratio of the (unlensed) flux from the planet to the (unlensed) flux from the star, and $`\rho _\mathrm{p}`$ is the angular radius of the planet in units of the angular Einstein ring radius $`\theta _\mathrm{E}`$ of the lens system. The Einstein ring radius is related to the physical parameters of the lens system by

$$\theta _\mathrm{E}=\sqrt{\frac{2R_{\mathrm{Sch}}}{D}},$$
(1)
where $`R_{\mathrm{Sch}}=2GM/c^2`$ is the Schwarzschild radius of the lens, $`M`$ is the total mass of the lens, $`DD_{\mathrm{os}}D_{\mathrm{ol}}/D_{\mathrm{ls}}`$, and $`D_{\mathrm{os}}`$, $`D_{\mathrm{ol}}`$, and $`D_{\mathrm{ls}}`$ are the distances between the observer-source, observer-lens, and lens-source, respectively. For searches in the optical, the light from the planet will be dominated by the reflected light from the star, and $`ϵ_\mathrm{p}10^4`$ for close-in planets.222Because the fraction of reflected light decreases as $`ϵ_\mathrm{p}a^2`$, optical searches will generally only be sensitive to close-in planets. However, planets may have significant intrinsic flux in the infrared, enabling the detection of more distant companions at longer wavelengths. Adopting typical parameters, $`\rho _\mathrm{p}10^4`$, and thus $`\delta _\mathrm{p}1\%`$. Graff & Gaudi (2000) demonstrated that this level of photometric precision is currently within reach of the largest aperture telescopes. The exquisite resolution afforded by caustics may allow one to study features on and around the source in detail, and with larger aperture telescopes, one may able to study spots and bands on the surfaces of detected planets by looking for small deviations to the nominal light curve (Graff & Gaudi, 2000). Here we study the signatures of these and other structures on lensing light curves, quantify the magnitude of the deviations, and assess their detectability using current and future instrumentation. Specifically, we consider the signatures of rings and satellites, as well as atmospheric features such as spots, zonal bands, and scattering. Lewis & Ibata (2000) considered using variations in the polarization during the planetary caustic crossing to probe the composition of the planetary atmosphere. The effects of the phase of the planet on the light curve were considered previously by Ashton & Lewis (2001).

The layout of the paper is as follows. In §2, we discuss binary lenses and their associated caustic structures, and describe the magnification patterns near caustics. We discuss expectations for the existence, stability, and properties of rings, satellites, and atmospheric features of close-in extrasolar planets in §3. In §4, we layout the formalism for calculating microlensing light curves, and apply this formalism to make a quantitative predictions for the deviations caused by planets (§4.1), satellites (§4.2), rings (§4.3), and atmospheric features (§4.4). We address the detectability of these deviations in §5, and summarize and conclude in §6.

## 2 Binary Lenses and Caustic Crossings

If a microlensing event is caused by a lens system composed of two masses, the resulting light curve can differ dramatically from the symmetric curve due to a single lens event. The main new feature of binary lens systems is the formation of caustics. Caustics are the set of positions in the source plane $`(\xi ,\eta )`$ on which the magnification of a point source is formally infinite. The set of caustics form closed curves, which are composed of multiple concave line segments that meet at points. The concave segments are referred to as fold caustics, whereas the points are cusps. The number and shape of caustic curves varies depending on the separation and the mass ratio between the two lens components. Figure 1 shows an example caustic structure of a binary lens system with equal mass components separated by $`\theta _\mathrm{E}`$. For more details on the caustic structure of binary lenses, see Schneider & Weiss (1986) and Erdl & Schneider (1993). The caustic cross section generally decreases with decreasing mass ratio, and decreases for widely and closely separated components. Therefore, the majority of caustic-crossing binary-lens events will have caustic structures similar to that shown in Figure 1. Most source trajectories (straight lines through the source plane) will not intersect the caustic near cusps, therefore the majority of caustic crossings will be simple fold caustic crossings. Near a fold caustic, the total magnification $`A`$ of a point source is generically given by (Schneider, Ehlers & Falco, 1992; Gaudi & Petters, 2002),

$$A(u_{})=\left(\frac{u_{}}{u_r}\right)^{1/2}+A_0,$$
(2)
where $`u_{}`$ is the angular normal distance of the source from the fold in units of $`\theta _\mathrm{E}`$, $`u_r`$ is related to the local derivatives of the lens potential, and describes the effective ‘strength’ of the caustic (also in units of $`\theta _\mathrm{E}`$), and $`A_0`$ is the magnification of all the images unrelated to the caustic. The divergent nature of the magnification (as $`Au_{}^{1/2}`$) translates into high angular resolution in the source plane.

Due to the divergent magnification near a caustic, the light curve of an caustic-crossing binary lens event is characterized by sharp spikes which are generally easily detectable. Mao & Paczyński (1991) predicted that $`7`$% of all events seen toward the Galactic bulge should be caustic-crossing events. Analyses of the databases of the MACHO (Alcock et al., 2000) and OGLE (Jaroszyński, 2002) lensing surveys have demonstrated that binary microlensing events are being detected at a rate roughly consistent with theoretical predictions. Therefore a significant sample of caustic-crossing binary-lens events should be available each year for planet searches. The planetary caustic crossing is expected to occur within $`1\mathrm{day}(a/0.1\mathrm{AU})`$ of the stellar caustic crossing. Therefore, in order to detect close-in planets and their associated structures, extremely dense sampling for a period of $`2`$ days centered around one of the stellar caustic crossings is required. Caustic crossings occur in pairs, and although the first caustic crossing may not be detected real time because of its short duration, it can be inferred afterwards from the enhanced magnification interior to the caustic. Followup observations can therefore be prepared before the second caustic crossing, and dense sampling throughout the second caustic crossing will be possible.

The usefulness of caustic-crossing binary-lens events has already been demonstrated in numerous ways. Precise photometry during the caustic crossings of several events has been used to measure the limb darkening profiles of stars located in both the Galactic bulge and the Small Magellanic Cloud (Albrow et al., 1999; Afonso et al., 2000; Albrow et al., 2001; An et al., 2002), and spectra taken during the unusually long caustic crossing of one event has been used to resolve the atmosphere of a $`K`$-giant in the bulge (Castro et al., 2001; Albrow et al., 2001). It also has been proposed that irregular structures on the source star surface such as spots can be studied in detail by analyzing the light curves of caustic-crossing binary lens events (Han et al., 2000; Chang & Han, 2002). The same principles that make these measurements possible also allow one to study tiny structures on and around the planetary companions to the source stars of caustic-crossing events.

What is the ultimate resolution that can be obtained during a caustic crossing? In geometric optics, this is set by the frequency of measurements and the number of photons that can be acquired in a given measurement, so that extremely small structures in the source plane could, in principle, be probed with sufficiently large telescopes and sufficiently high cadence. However, for very small sources, geometric optics breaks down, and diffraction effects become important. For a fold caustic crossing, this occurs when the angular size $`\rho _\mathrm{s}`$ of the source in units of $`\theta _\mathrm{E}`$ satisfies $`\rho _\mathrm{s}<\rho _d`$, where (Ulmer & Goodman, 1995; Jaroszynski & Paczynski, 1995),

$$\rho _d\left(\frac{\lambda }{16\pi R_{\mathrm{Sch}}}\right)^{2/3}u_r^{1/3}.$$
(3)
Here $`\lambda `$ is the wavelength of the light. For $`\lambda 800\mathrm{nm}`$ ($`I`$-band) and $`M=0.3M_{}`$, $`\rho _d7\times 10^8u_r^{1/3}`$. For nearly equal-mass binaries, such as shown in Figure 1, $`u_r1`$. Thus the ultimate resolution achievable during a caustic-crossing is $`\rho _d\theta _\mathrm{E}20\mathrm{pas}`$, or a length of $`\rho _d\theta _\mathrm{E}D_{\mathrm{os}}26\mathrm{km}`$ at the distance of the bulge. This is considerably smaller than the size of any of the structures we consider here, so we can safely ignore diffraction effects.

## 3 Satellites, Rings, and Atmospheric Features of Close-in Planets

All of the planets in our solar system have at least one satellite, with the exceptions of Mercury and Venus, so it seems at least plausible that satellites are common by-products of the formation of planetary systems. Satellites are perturbed by the tidal bulges they induce on their parent planets, and their orbits evolve under the influence of this torque. If the timescale for this evolution is sufficiently short, the satellite will either spiral inward until impacting with the parent planet, or outward until it reaches the Hill radius of the planet, and is lost to the parent star. The survival of satellites has been considered by numerous authors in the context of our solar system (see, e.g. Ward & Reid 1973). More recently, Barnes & O’Brien (2002) studied the lifetimes of satellites in the context of extrasolar planetary systems, and found that satellites with $`M_{\mathrm{sat}}>M_{}`$ cannot survive for more than $`5`$ Gyr around Jupiter-like planets with separations $`a0.25\mathrm{AU}`$, assuming a solar-mass primary star. Therefore relatively massive satellites around close-in planets are expected to be rare. However, the lifetime of satellites depends sensitively on the (uncertain) tidal $`Q`$ value of the planet, and therefore may be significantly in error. Furthermore, planets around lower-mass stars are expected to retain their satellites for a longer period of time.

Satellites of close-in planets are unlikely to have substantial atmospheres because their surface escape speeds are generally small enough that most light element gases will have evaporated over the age of the system. The equilibrium blackbody temperatures of satellites of planets with $`a<0.1\mathrm{AU}`$ are $`T900\mathrm{K}`$, and any gases with an atomic mass less than $`18`$ (including $`\mathrm{H},\mathrm{He},\mathrm{CH}_4,\mathrm{NH}_3`$ and $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{O}`$), will have been entirely lost over the $`5\mathrm{Gyr}`$ age of the system for satellites with mass $`M_{}`$. Therefore, the scattering surface of any extant satellite will likely be rocky.

Ring systems exist around all of the gas giants in our solar system, and therefore might also be expected to be common debris from planetary formation. The rings we observe in the solar system have varied properties, but at least some, such as the rings of Saturn, are composed of icy materials which give rise to high albedos. Such high albedos would aid considerably in detection in the current context. Unfortunately ices cannot exist as separations less than,

$$a\left(\frac{L_{}}{16\pi \sigma T_{sub}^4}\right)^{1/2}=2.7\mathrm{AU}\left(\frac{L_{}}{L_{}}\right)^{1/2},$$
(4)
where $`L_{}`$ is luminosity of the parent star and $`T_{sub}=170\mathrm{K}`$ is the sublimation temperature of ice. Thus close-in planets cannot have rings composed of icy material. Rocky rings are not precluded; however the constituent particles are subject to numerous dynamical forces, including Poynting-Robertson (PR) drag, viscous drag from the planet exosphere, torques from satellites and/or shepherd moons, and internal collisions. The characteristic decay time for PR-drag is (Goldreich & Tremaine, 1982)

$$t_{\mathrm{PR}}10^5\mathrm{yr}\left(\frac{\rho }{\mathrm{g}\mathrm{cm}^3}\right)\left(\frac{r}{\mathrm{cm}}\right)\left(\frac{a}{0.1\mathrm{AU}}\right)^2,$$
(5)
where $`\rho `$ and $`r`$ are the density and radius of the particles, respectively. For close-in planets, the decay time $`t_{vd}`$ for viscous drag is likely to be considerably larger than $`t_{\mathrm{PR}}`$ (Goldreich & Tremaine, 1982), unless the planet’s exospheres are quite dense, $`\rho 10^{16}\mathrm{g}\mathrm{cm}^3`$. Interparticle forces only serve to spread the ring. Therefore, the dominant effect, aside from satellite perturbations, is likely to be PR drag. It is clear that rings of close-in planets will be lost to the planet on a relatively short timescale unless they are stabilized by interactions with satellites. Since, as we have just discussed, satellites around close-in planets are themselves generally not long-lived, it is not clear that this is a viable method of maintaining rings. A definitive exploration of the stability of rings and satellite systems around close-in planets is beyond the scope of this paper, but warrants future study.

An enormous amount of effort has been devoted to modeling of the atmospheres of extrasolar planets, with ever increasing levels of sophistication (see, e.g. Saumon et al. 1996; Burrows et al. 1997; Seager & Sasselov 2000). Special emphasis has been placed on close-in planets (Seager & Sasselov, 1998; Goukenleuque et al., 2000). The recent confrontation of observations of the radius and atmosphere of HD209458b (Brown et al., 2001; Charbonneau et al, 2000) with theoretical predictions (Seager & Sasselov, 2000; Burrows et al., 2000) generally indicates that considerably more work needs to be done (Guillot & Showman, 2002; Fortney et al., 2003). The problem of modeling the atmospheres of close-in planets is an especially difficult one, due to the fact that these planets are tidally locked to their parent stars, and subject to strong stellar irradiation. It seems likely that non-equilibrium processes, weather, and photoionization will all play a role in accurate theoretical models. It is therefore perhaps a bit premature to speculate on the existence and nature of surface features, such as zonal bands and spots, on extrasolar planets. There are intriguing indications, however, that close-in planets may possess large-scale surface features. Showman & Guillot (2002) and Cho et al. (2003) showed that the extreme day-night temperature difference in close-in, synchronized planets drive large-scale zonal winds that can reach $`2\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. These circulation patterns result in non-uniform surface temperatures which may lead to significant variations in the scattering, reflecting, and absorbing properties of the atmosphere.

Regardless of whether or not surface irregularities exist on extrasolar planets, it is clear that a uniform surface brightness, which has been assumed in previous microlensing simulations (Graff & Gaudi, 2000; Lewis & Ibata, 2000; Ashton & Lewis, 2001), will likely not be an accurate representation of the global illumination pattern of the planet. Even for simple Lambert scattering, in which each area element of the planetary atmosphere reflects the incident flux uniformly back into the $`2\pi `$ available solid angle, the surface brightness profile of the planet is non-uniform due to projection effects. Departures from Lambert scattering are expected, and depend on such properties as the particle size of the condensates in the atmosphere (Seager & Sasselov, 2000).

To summarize, it remains unclear whether satellites or ring systems can exist around close-in extrasolar planets. Models of the close-in planetary atmospheres have not yet reached the level of sophistication required to definitively predict whether large-scale surface features such as zonal bands or spots will be present. It seems quite likely, however, that the surface brightness profile of extrasolar planets will not be uniform, as has previously been assumed when calculating the effects of microlensing. We will therefore proceed with rampant optimism, and assume that all of the above structures, (rings, moons, zonal bands, spots, and non-uniform surface brightness profiles) may exist, and consider the nature and magnitude of their effects on microlensing light curves.

## 4 Quantitative Estimates

In this section, we estimate the magnitude of the features in lensing light curves produced by satellites, rings, and atmospheric features, relative to the nominal light curve produced by an isolated, circular planet with uniform surface brightness. For the most part, we use semi-analytic means to produce quantitative estimates in order to elucidate the dependence of the deviations on the parameters of the system. However, in some cases the signals cannot be computed analytically. We therefore complement our semi-analytic results with detailed numerical simulations.

The time-dependent total flux $`F(t)`$ from a system composed of a star and $`N`$ additional source components being microlensed can be generically written as,

$$F(t)=F_{}A_{}(t)+\underset{i}{\overset{N}{}}F_iA_i(t)+B,$$
(6)
where $`F_{}`$ is the unlensed flux of the star, $`A_{}`$ is the magnification of the star, $`F_i`$ and $`A_i`$ are the unlensed flux and magnification of the $`i`$th additional component (which may include planets, satellites, rings, etc.), and $`B`$ is any unlensed blended flux. We will henceforth assume no blending, but note that any deviation in the light curve is suppressed in the presence of blending by a factor $`(1+f_b/A_{nb})^1`$, where $`f_bB/(F_{}+F_i)`$ is the ratio of blend to total source flux, and $`A_{nb}`$ is the total magnification in the absence of blending.

Generally, we have that $`F_iF_{}`$, and $`F_iF_{}`$, and thus the observed magnification can be approximated as

$$A_{obs}\frac{F(t)}{F_{}+F_i}A_{}+\mathrm{\Delta }A_{tot};\mathrm{\Delta }A_{tot}\underset{i}{}f_iA_i,$$
(7)
where we have defined $`\mathrm{\Delta }A_{tot}`$, the extra magnification due to the planetary companion and associated structures, and the flux ratio $`f_iF_i/F_{}`$ between the $`i`$th component and the star.

For a uniform, circular source sufficiently close to a linear fold caustic, the magnification is (Chang, 1984; Schneider, Ehlers & Falco, 1992),

$$A_{fs}=\left(\frac{u_r}{\rho _\mathrm{s}}\right)^{1/2}G_0(z)+A_0,$$
(8)
where $`zu_{}/\rho _\mathrm{s}`$ is the normal distance of the source from the caustic in units of the source size. The function $`G_0(z)`$ describes the normalized light curve for a uniform, circular source crossing a fold caustic, and can be expressed in terms of elliptic integrals (Schneider & Weiss, 1986). It is useful because it can be used to describe the magnification of any source that can decomposed into components with azimuthal symmetry. $`G_0`$ has a maximum of $`1.38`$ at $`z0.66`$. In the range $`1z1`$, the mean value of $`G_0(z)`$ is $`0.95`$ and the RMS is $`1.04`$. The magnification can also be written as a function of time by defining $`t_ru_rt_\mathrm{E}\mathrm{csc}\gamma `$, and $`z=(tt_{cc})/\mathrm{\Delta }t`$, where $`t_{cc}`$ is the time when the center of the source crosses the caustic, and $`\gamma `$ is the angle of the trajectory with respect to the caustic, and the timescale of the caustic crossing is $`\mathrm{\Delta }t\rho _\mathrm{s}t_\mathrm{E}\mathrm{csc}\gamma `$. Here $`t_\mathrm{E}=\theta _\mathrm{E}/\mu `$ is the timescale of the primary event, and $`\mu `$ is the relative lens-source proper motion.

For typical microlensing events toward the Galactic bulge, $`\theta _\mathrm{E}320\mu \mathrm{as}`$ and $`\mu 12.5\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{kpc}^1`$, and thus $`t_\mathrm{E}22\mathrm{days}`$. We will assume that the primary source is a G-dwarf in the bulge, i.e. that it has a radius $`R_{}=R_{}`$ and is located at the distance $`D_{\mathrm{os}}=8\mathrm{kpc}`$. The angular radius is $`\theta _{}0.6\mu \mathrm{as}`$, and thus the dimensionless source size is $`\rho _{}=\theta _{}/\theta _\mathrm{E}=1.8\times 10^3`$. The caustic crossing timescale for a source of physical radius $`R`$ is,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }t_{}1\mathrm{hr}\mathrm{csc}\gamma \left(\frac{R}{R_{}}\right).$$
(9)
Thus the primary caustic crossing is expected to last $`2\mathrm{\Delta }t_{}2\mathrm{hr}`$ for $`R_{}=R_{}`$.

### 4.1 Planet

The largest contribution to $`\mathrm{\Delta }A_{tot}`$ generally will be from the planet itself, $`\mathrm{\Delta }A_\mathrm{p}f_\mathrm{p}A_\mathrm{p}`$. In the case of light reflected by a planetary atmosphere or surface, the flux fraction $`f_\mathrm{p}`$ will depend on the radius $`R_\mathrm{p}`$ of the planet, its distance $`a`$ from the star, the scattering properties of the atmosphere, and the phase of the planet. Generically, the flux ratio $`f_\mathrm{p}`$ between the planet and star can be written as (Sobolev, 1975),

$$f_\mathrm{p}=ϵ_\mathrm{p}\mathrm{\Phi }(\alpha ),$$
(10)
where $`\alpha `$ is the phase angle, defined as the angle between the star and Earth as seen from the planet, $`\mathrm{\Phi }(\alpha )`$ is the phase function, and $`ϵ_\mathrm{p}`$ is the flux ratio at $`\alpha =0`$,

$$ϵ_\mathrm{p}=𝒜_\mathrm{p}\left(\frac{R_\mathrm{p}}{a}\right)^22.28\times 10^5𝒜_\mathrm{p}\left(\frac{a}{0.1\mathrm{AU}}\right)^2\left(\frac{R_\mathrm{p}}{R_{Jup}}\right)^2$$
(11)
Here $`𝒜_\mathrm{p}`$ is the geometric albedo of the planet. For a Lambert sphere, $`𝒜_\mathrm{p}=2/3`$, and

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(\alpha )=\frac{1}{\pi }\left[\mathrm{sin}\alpha +(\pi \alpha )\mathrm{cos}\alpha \right].$$
(12)
The magnification $`A_\mathrm{p}`$ of the planet will depend on the size of the planet, as well as on its surface brightness. The surface brightness, in turn, depends on the phase of the planet, as well as the scattering properties of the atmosphere. The effects of the phase of the planet on the magnification have been considered by Ashton & Lewis (2001), and we consider the effects of Lambert-sphere scattering on the magnification in §4.4.3. We will therefore assume that the planet has a uniform surface brightness and is at full phase ($`\alpha =0`$ and thus $`\mathrm{\Phi }=1`$), unless otherwise stated. In this case, the magnification of the planet is simply given by equation (8), with $`\rho _\mathrm{s}=\rho _\mathrm{p}`$, where $`\rho _\mathrm{p}`$ is the angular radius of the planet in units of $`\theta _\mathrm{E}`$. Adopting this expression, the contribution of the perturbation from the planet is,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }A_\mathrm{p}=ϵ_\mathrm{p}\left(\frac{u_r}{\rho _\mathrm{p}}\right)^{1/2}G_0(z_\mathrm{p}).$$
(13)
Note that we have assumed that $`f_\mathrm{p}A_01`$. In most cases, $`A_0`$ is of order unity, and this will be an excellent approximation. We will furthermore assume that $`f_iA_01`$ in deriving all analytic expressions. During the planetary caustic crossing, the RMS333The RMS is the relevant quantity for signal-to-noise considerations, see §5. of $`G_0`$ is $`1`$. Thus the magnitude of the deviation is given by the coefficients of the $`G_0`$ function in equation (13),

$$\delta _\mathrm{p}ϵ_\mathrm{p}\left(\frac{u_r}{\rho _\mathrm{p}}\right)^{1/2}.$$
(14)
For binary lenses with caustic structures similar to that shown in Figure 1, $`u_r`$ is of order unity (Lee, Chang, & Kim, 1998).

Thus for typical microlensing bulge parameters, $`\delta _\mathrm{p}=1.67\times 10^3𝒜_\mathrm{p}(R_\mathrm{p}/R_{Jup})^{3/2}(a/0.1\mathrm{AU})^2`$, and for a planet with properties similar to HD209458b ($`R_\mathrm{p}=1.347R_{Jup}`$ and $`a=0.0468\mathrm{AU}`$, Brown et al. 2001), and $`𝒜_\mathrm{p}=2/3`$, $`\delta _\mathrm{p}0.8\%`$. From equation (9), the duration of planetary caustic crossing is $`2\mathrm{\Delta }t_\mathrm{p}16\mathrm{min}\mathrm{csc}\gamma `$ for $`R_\mathrm{p}=1.347R_{Jup}`$.

### 4.2 Satellites

The magnitude of the deviation caused by a satellite can be estimated using the same formalism as used for the planet (§4.1). As for the planet, we will assume that the satellite has a uniform surface brightness and phase $`\alpha =0`$. The deviation $`\mathrm{\Delta }A_{\mathrm{sa}}`$ caused by the satellite is then,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }A_{\mathrm{sa}}=ϵ_{\mathrm{sa}}\left(\frac{u_r}{\rho _{\mathrm{sa}}}\right)^{1/2}G_0(z_{\mathrm{sa}}),$$
(15)
where $`ϵ_{\mathrm{sa}}`$ is the flux ratio between the satellite and star, and $`\rho _{\mathrm{sa}}`$ is the dimensionless size of the satellite. In analogy to the case of the planet alone, we can define $`\delta _{\mathrm{sa}}ϵ_{\mathrm{sa}}(u_r/\rho _{\mathrm{sa}})^{1/2}`$ to be the magnitude of the deviation from the satellite. If we assume that the distance of the satellite from the planet is small compared to $`a`$, we can relate this to the magnitude of the deviation due to the planet by,

$$\delta _{\mathrm{sa}}=\kappa _{\mathrm{sa}}\left(\frac{R_{\mathrm{sa}}}{R_\mathrm{p}}\right)^{3/2}\delta _\mathrm{p},$$
(16)
where $`\kappa _{\mathrm{sa}}=𝒜_{\mathrm{sa}}/𝒜_\mathrm{p}`$ is the ratio of the geometric albedos of the satellite and planet, and $`R_{\mathrm{sa}}`$ is the radius of the satellite. The ratio $`\kappa _{\mathrm{sa}}`$ will depend quite strongly on the compositions of the planet and satellite. As we argued in §3, satellites of close-in planets are unlikely to have substantial atmospheres, and therefore the scattering surface will be rocky in composition. Albedos of rocky bodies depend on their composition, but are generally low, $`0.3`$. For definiteness, we will assume that $`\kappa _{\mathrm{sa}}=0.1`$, and assume a satellite radius of $`R_{\mathrm{sa}}=0.2R_\mathrm{p}`$. This is $`2R_{}`$ for a Jupiter-size planet. Then $`\delta _{\mathrm{sa}}1\%\delta _\mathrm{p}`$.

Assuming typical bulge parameters, an analog of the HD209458 system at $`D_{\mathrm{os}}=8\mathrm{k}\mathrm{p}\mathrm{c}`$, and for the second caustic crossing of the dashed trajectory in Figure 1, which has the properties $`\gamma =71^{}`$ and $`u_r=0.82`$, we find $`\delta _\mathrm{p}=7.19\times 10^3`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_\mathrm{p}=8.48\mathrm{min}`$. Adopting these parameters, Figure 2 shows the total magnification associated with the planet and satellite, $`\mathrm{\Delta }A_{tot}=\mathrm{\Delta }A_\mathrm{p}+\mathrm{\Delta }A_{\mathrm{sa}}`$, as well as the extra magnification from the satellite alone, $`\mathrm{\Delta }A_{\mathrm{sa}}`$. We show the effect for various satellite positions. The time it takes for the caustic to cross the satellite is $`2\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\mathrm{sa}}3.4\mathrm{min}`$.

### 4.3 Rings

Rings of extrasolar planets have such low mass that they have no observable dynamical effect on the host star’s motion. However, as shown by the example of Saturn’s ring, they can be significantly more extended than planets. This makes them much easier to be identified by transits, for which the signal varies as the area $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ of the feature that occults the star, and microlensing, for which the signal is $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{3/4}`$ due to the competing effects of the amount of reflected light ($`\mathrm{\Omega }`$), and the magnification ($`\mathrm{\Omega }^{1/4}`$).

We can obtain an analytic estimate of the signal caused by a ring by assuming a face-on geometry. We model the ring as a circular annulus with uniform surface brightness, outer radius $`R_{out}`$, and inner radius $`R_{in}`$. The magnification from the ring is then,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }A_{\mathrm{ri}}=\delta _{\mathrm{ri}}H,$$
(17)
where we have defined

$$H\left[\left(\frac{R_{out}}{R_\mathrm{p}}\right)^{3/2}G_0(z_{out})\left(\frac{R_{in}}{R_\mathrm{p}}\right)^{3/2}G_0(z_{in})\right],$$
(18)
and $`z_{out}z_\mathrm{p}(R_\mathrm{p}/R_{out})`$, and similarly for $`z_{in}`$. The shape and magnitude of the function $`H`$ will depend on the relative sizes of $`R_{out}`$, $`R_{in}`$, and $`R_\mathrm{p}`$, but will generally be of order unity for the ring systems considered here. The magnitude of the deviation due to the ring is therefore roughly $`\delta _{\mathrm{ri}}`$, which in terms of the deviation from the planet is,

$$\delta _{\mathrm{ri}}=\kappa _{\mathrm{ri}}\delta _\mathrm{p},$$
(19)
where $`\kappa _{\mathrm{ri}}=𝒜_{\mathrm{ri}}/𝒜_\mathrm{p}`$ is the ratio of the geometric albedos of the ring and planet. We argued in §3 that any surviving ring systems of close-in planets must be rocky in nature, and thus the albedos will generally be small. Adopting $`\kappa _{\mathrm{ri}}=0.15`$, $`\delta _{\mathrm{ri}}=15\%\delta _\mathrm{p}`$.

Figure 3 shows the total magnification associated with the planet and ring system, $`\mathrm{\Delta }A_{tot}=\mathrm{\Delta }A_\mathrm{p}+\mathrm{\Delta }A_{\mathrm{ri}}`$, where we have adopted the same parameters for the planetary deviation as in §4.2, namely $`\delta _\mathrm{p}=7.19\times 10^3`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_\mathrm{p}=8.48\mathrm{min}`$. We also show the magnification from the ring system alone, $`\mathrm{\Delta }A_{\mathrm{ri}}`$. We show the effect of the ring for various inner radii, and in order to isolate the effect of varying the inner radius on the resulting light curve, we fix the total area of the ring systems to be $`\pi (R_{out}^2R_{in}^2)=10R_\mathrm{p}^2`$. The two small bumps on the left and right sides of the primary peak are caused by the ring’s entrance and exit of the caustic. The time between the two ring-induced bumps (or between one of the bumps and the primary peak), relative to the time scale of the planetary perturbation, is a measure of the relative dimension of the ring compared to the size of the planet disk. The time it takes for the caustic to cross the ring system is $`2\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\mathrm{ri}}=2(R_{out}/R_\mathrm{p})\mathrm{\Delta }t_\mathrm{p}`$. For the largest ring system shown in Figure 3, this is $`74\mathrm{min}`$. We find that the signal of the ring generally decreases slowly as the gap between the planet and the ring increases.

Although our analytical expressions for the deviations induced by a simple, face-on ring system are useful in that they allow one to gain insight and find relatively simply scalings for the magnitude of the effect, they are limited in their scope. In particular, they cannot be used to access the effects of inclined ring systems. For this, numerical integration must be employed in order to calculate the magnification of the ring. We consider sources crossing the second caustic of the dashed trajectory in Figure 1. To calculate the light curve, we first compute the full binary-lens magnification on each area element on the surface of the source and then average the magnifications of the individual elements, weighting by the surface brightness of each element. We again assume typical microlensing parameters, and a source system analogous to HD 209458 at 8 kpc. This yields $`ϵ_\mathrm{p}=1.26\times 10^4`$, and $`\rho _\mathrm{p}t_\mathrm{E}=8.02\mathrm{min}`$. The effects of $`u_r`$ and $`\gamma `$ are included implicitly in our numerical integration of the binary-lens magnification for the specific trajectory we have adopted. For the planet-only case, we find our numerical and analytic light curves agree quite well, indicating that our numerical integrations are accurate, the caustic is well-approximated by a simple linear fold, and that we are using the appropriate values of $`\gamma `$ and $`u_r`$ in our analytic expressions.

In the numerical simulations, we model ringed planets in the same manner as the analytic calculations. We assume that the ring is an infinitely thin annulus without any gap, with inner and outer radii $`R_{in}`$ and $`R_{out}`$, respectively. We assume the planet has a uniform albedo of $`𝒜_\mathrm{p}=2/3`$ for pure Lambert scattering. We assume that the ring has an albedo of $`𝒜_{\mathrm{ri}}=0.1`$, and thus $`\kappa _{\mathrm{ri}}=0.15`$, unless otherwise specified. For the simulations, we take the effects of the planet’s phase and the ring’s inclination into consideration. For some specific geometries of the planet, host star, and the observer, the planet will cast a shadow on the ring. We also take this effect into consideration. We then investigate the variations of the pattern of ring-induced anomalies depending on these various factors affecting the shape of the ring.

Defining the projected shape of a ringed planet requires many parameters, such as the inclination of the ring, the phase angle, the radius of the planet disk, and the inner and outer ring radii. As a result of the large number of parameters, it is often difficult to imagine the planet’s shape based on these parameter values. We therefore simply use small icons to characterize the planet and ring shapes instead of specifying all these parameters whenever we present light curves resulting from specific realizations.

Figure 4 shows the effect of the width of the ring on the light curve. All of the systems have a common inner ring radius and gap between the planet disk and the ring, but different outer ring radii. We have also assumed that the ring system is viewed at an angle of $`i=75^{}`$ with respect to the normal to the ring plane. Not surprisingly, increasing the width of the ring increases the magnitude and duration of the ring-induced perturbation.

Figure 5 shows the dependence of the ring-induced anomaly pattern on the albedo of the ring particles. We test three different albedos of $`𝒜_{\mathrm{ri}}=0.05`$, 0.1, and 0.2 (corresponding to $`\kappa _{\mathrm{ri}}=0.075`$, 0.3, and 0.6), and the difference in the greyscale of the rings in the icons represents the variation of the albedo. As expected, the magnitude of the ring signal is proportional to the albedo of ring particles.

In Figure 6, we demonstrate the effects of a shadow cast on the ring by the planet. In this case, we must also take into account the phase of the planet to be self-consistent. For the geometry depicted in Figure 6, the planet is at quarter phase. We find that the shape of the part of the light curve arising from the planet is strongly dependent on the phase of the planet, as discussed in detail by Ashton & Lewis (2001), however the shape of the signal due the ring does not depend strongly on the effect of the shadow of the planet, due to the relatively small surface area of the ring occulted by the planet.

From the light curves in Figures 46, we conclude that the typical magnitude of ring-induced deviations is $`\delta _{\mathrm{ri}}\kappa _{\mathrm{ri}}\delta _\mathrm{p}`$, confirming our analytic estimates, although there are considerable variations depending on the inclination and size of the ring.

### 4.4 Atmospheric Features

In contrast to the signatures of satellites and rings, atmospheric features that are located on the surface of the planet will only produce detectable deviations while the planet is resolved. The planet is only effectively resolved when it is within about one planet radius from the caustic. Therefore, deviations caused by spots, bands, or otherwise non-uniform surface brightness profiles will only be noticeable during a time $`2\mathrm{\Delta }t_\mathrm{p}`$ centered on the caustic crossing; outside of this the flux from the planet will essentially be given by the unresolved flux (i.e. the mean surface brightness times the area of the planet disk) times the magnification of a point-source at the center of the planet disk.

#### 4.4.1 Spots

Spots, such as the Great Red Spot on Jupiter, have been observed on the gas giants in our solar system, and are regions of cyclonic activity that have slightly different temperatures and pressures from their surrounding atmospheres. As a result, the colors and albedos of spots are also slightly different. These spots can be quite large relative to the planetary radii; the Great Red Spot has a size larger than $`R_{}`$. In this subsection, we provide an analytic estimate of the effect of a spot on the microlensing light curve. We model the spot as a circle of radius $`R_{\mathrm{sp}}`$, with an albedo equal to a fraction $`\kappa _{\mathrm{sp}}`$ of the albedo of the remainder of the planetary surface. The deviation caused by the spot is then,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }A_{\mathrm{sp}}=\delta _\mathrm{p}\left\{\frac{1\kappa _{\mathrm{sp}}}{1(1\kappa _{\mathrm{sp}})\left(R_{\mathrm{sp}}/R_\mathrm{p}\right)^2}\left[\left(\frac{R_{\mathrm{sp}}}{R_\mathrm{p}}\right)^2G_0(z_\mathrm{p})\left(\frac{R_{\mathrm{sp}}}{R_\mathrm{p}}\right)^{3/2}G_0(z_{\mathrm{sp}})\right]\right\}.$$
(20)
Note that, in deriving equation (20), the mean surface brightness of the spotted planet has been normalized to that of the planet without the spot. This ensures that the magnifications of the two cases are identical when the source is not resolved. That this is true can be seen by noting that, for $`z_{\mathrm{sp}},z_\mathrm{p}\mathrm{}`$, the term in square brackets goes to zero, because $`G_0(z_{\mathrm{sp}})(R_{\mathrm{sp}}/R_\mathrm{p})^{1/2}G_0(z_\mathrm{p})`$. Since we are generally concerned with small spots with $`R_{\mathrm{sp}}/R_\mathrm{p}1`$, we can make an estimate of the magnitude $`\delta _{\mathrm{sp}}`$ of the deviation caused by the spot by ignoring terms in equation (20) of order $`(R_{\mathrm{sp}}/R_\mathrm{p})^2`$ or higher, and looking at the resulting coefficient to the $`G_0(z_{\mathrm{sp}})`$ function. We find that

$$\delta _{\mathrm{sp}}(1r_{\mathrm{sp}})\left(\frac{R_{\mathrm{sp}}}{R_\mathrm{p}}\right)^{3/2}\delta _\mathrm{p}.$$
(21)
For $`\kappa _{\mathrm{sp}}=0.8`$, and $`R_{\mathrm{sp}}=0.2R_\mathrm{p}`$ ($`2R_{}`$ for $`R_\mathrm{p}=R_{Jup}`$), we find $`\delta _{\mathrm{sp}}2\%\delta _\mathrm{p}`$.

In Figure 7, we show the total magnification $`\mathrm{\Delta }A_{tot}`$, with and without a spot of radius $`R_{\mathrm{sp}}=0.2R_\mathrm{p}`$ and relative albedo $`\kappa _{\mathrm{sp}}=0.8`$. We have adopted the same parameters as in §§ 4.2 and 4.3, $`\delta _\mathrm{p}=7.19\times 10^3`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_\mathrm{p}=8.48\mathrm{min}`$. We vary the position of the spot as shown. We also show $`\mathrm{\Delta }A_{\mathrm{sp}}`$, the deviation caused by the spot from the light curve of a planet with uniform surface brightness. We find the magnitude of the deviation caused by the spot to be $`1\%\delta _\mathrm{p}`$, in rough agreement with our analytic estimate. Since, for linear fold caustics, the magnification is independent of position along the direction parallel to the caustic, the results in Figure 7 are applicable for any circular spot located on the star at the same perpendicular distance from the caustic as the spots shown. Microlensing of spotted planets is analogous to microlensing of spotted stars, see Han et al. (2000), Lewis (2001), and Chang & Han (2002) for examples of such lightcurves.

#### 4.4.2 Zonal Bands

As can be seen on the surface of Jupiter, gaseous giant planets may exhibit color variations on their surface, e.g. zonal bands, which will cause surface brightness variations within a given spectral band. In this subsection, we investigate whether zonal bands can produce noticeable signatures in lensing light curves.

We model zonal bands by stripes which are parallel with the equator of the planet. We assume that the albedos of these stripes alternate with relative values $`\kappa _{\mathrm{ba}}`$, and we vary the total number of stripes. Analytic estimates are generally impossible for arbitrary inclinations of the planet, however, for the special case when the planet is seen pole-in, the pattern of the zonal bands is simply concentric annuli with alternating albedos. In this case, we can find a semi-analytic expression for the deviation from a uniform surface brightness due to the zonal bands. The resulting expression is somewhat complicated,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }A_{\mathrm{ba}}=\delta _\mathrm{p}\left[\frac{1\kappa _{\mathrm{ba}}}{1(1\kappa _{\mathrm{ba}})(\stackrel{~}{R}_{\mathrm{ba}}/R_\mathrm{p})^2}H^{}\right],$$
(22)
where

$$H^{}\left(\frac{\stackrel{~}{R}_{\mathrm{ba}}}{R_\mathrm{p}}\right)^2G_0(z_\mathrm{p})\underset{i=1}{\overset{N_{\mathrm{ba}}1}{}}(1)^{i+\mathrm{}}\left(\frac{R_{\mathrm{ba},i}}{R_\mathrm{p}}\right)^{3/2}G_0(z_{\mathrm{ba},i}),$$
(23)
and $`N_{\mathrm{ba}}`$ is the number of bands, $`R_{\mathrm{ba},i}`$ is the outer radius of the $`i`$th band, $`z_{b,i}z_\mathrm{p}(R_\mathrm{p}/R_{\mathrm{ba},i})`$, $`\mathrm{}=1`$ if $`N_{\mathrm{ba}}`$ is odd, and $`\mathrm{}=0`$ if $`N_{\mathrm{ba}}`$ is even, and

$$\stackrel{~}{R}_{\mathrm{ba}}^2\underset{i=1}{\overset{N_{\mathrm{ba}}1}{}}(1)^{i+\mathrm{}}R_{\mathrm{ba},i}^2.$$
(24)
Note that, as $`N_{\mathrm{ba}}\mathrm{}`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }A_{\mathrm{ba}}0`$. The term in square brackets in equation (22) cannot be reduced to a simpler expression, and must be calculated explicitly using the analytic form for the $`G_0`$ function.

In Figure 8, we show the total magnification $`\mathrm{\Delta }A_{tot}`$ of the planet, with and without $`N_{\mathrm{ba}}`$ bands with relative albedos $`\kappa _{\mathrm{ba}}=0.8`$, similar to that of the Jupiter (Pilcher & McCord, 1971). We have adopted the same parameters as in the previous sections, except here we consider the second caustic crossing of the solid trajectory in Figure 1, which has the properties $`u_r=0.31`$ and $`\gamma =89^{}`$. This yields $`\delta _\mathrm{p}=4.41\times 10^3`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_\mathrm{p}=8.02\mathrm{min}`$. We vary the number of bands from $`N_{\mathrm{ba}}=35`$, and the bands have equally-spaced radii (and thus cover different surface areas on the source). We also show $`\mathrm{\Delta }A_{\mathrm{ba}}`$, the normalized deviation caused by the banded structure from the light curve of a planet with uniform surface brightness. We find the magnitude of the deviation caused by the bands to be

$$\delta _{\mathrm{ba}}30\%(1\kappa _{\mathrm{ba}})N_{\mathrm{ba}}^\beta \delta _\mathrm{p}.$$
(25)
Here the scaling with $`\kappa _{\mathrm{ba}}`$ is only approximate. The scaling with $`N_{\mathrm{ba}}`$ depends on the geometry of the zones; $`\beta =1`$ for zones with equally-spaced $`R_{\mathrm{ba},i}`$ (as shown in Fig. 8), whereas $`\beta =1/2`$ for equal-area bands. For equal-area zones, the numerical coefficient in equation (25) is also somewhat smaller, $`20\%`$.

For geometries where the planet is not pole-on, we must resort to numerical calculations. For these calculations, we assume a total of nine bands (with four dark lanes), with relative albedos of $`\kappa _{\mathrm{ba}}=0.8`$, as in the previous example. The albedos are normalized such that the average albedo is $`2/3`$. Figure 9 shows the effect of zonal bands for a planet with inclination $`i=90`$ (i.e. the axis of rotation in the plane of the sky), and various orientations of the equator with respect to the caustic. As before, we assume the source trajectory indicated by the solid line in Figure 1. The solid curve is the light curve resulting from a planet having a uniform surface brightness with $`𝒜_\mathrm{p}`$. From the figure, one finds that the deviations induced by the zonal bands are $`1\%\delta _\mathrm{p}`$, similar to the pole-on case. Note that these deviations are generally an order of magnitude smaller than the typical deviations induced by rings.

#### 4.4.3 Lambert Sphere Scattering

Even without any irregular structure, the surface brightness profile of a planet will generally not be uniform due to projection effects, and the scattering properties of the atmosphere. The surface brightness distribution will therefore vary depending on the latitude $`\psi `$ and longitude $`\omega `$ of the planet’s surface as well as the planet’s phase angle, $`\alpha `$. To illustrate the pattern of lensing light curve deviations caused by a realistic atmosphere, we adopt the simple assumption of pure Lambert scattering, where the incident radiation from the host star is scattered isotropically. Under this assumption, it can be shown that the surface brightness profile is

$$S(\alpha ,\omega ,\psi )=\overline{S}\frac{3}{2}\frac{\mathrm{cos}(\alpha \omega )\mathrm{cos}\omega \mathrm{cos}^2\psi }{\mathrm{\Phi }(\alpha )},\overline{S}=\frac{F_\mathrm{p}}{\pi \theta _\mathrm{p}^2},$$
(26)
for $`\omega \alpha \pi /2`$ and zero otherwise (Sobolev, 1975). Here $`\overline{S}`$ is the mean surface brightness of the planet, and $`\mathrm{\Phi }(\alpha )`$ is the phase integral introduced in §4.1 and displayed explicitly in equation (12). We show the surface brightness distribution for a Lambert sphere with $`\alpha =0`$ in Figure 10, along with the resulting microlensing light curve. As in §4.4.2, we have assumed the solid source trajectory in Figure 1. We compare this to the light curve resulting from a planet with a uniform surface brightness and an albedo equal to the geometric albedo of the Lambert sphere (i.e. $`𝒜_\mathrm{p}=2/3`$). We find that the light curve of a Lambert sphere differs from a uniform surface brightness profile by $`10\%\delta _\mathrm{p}`$. The light curve from a Lambert sphere is more highly magnified, due to the fact that the surface brightness profile is more centrally concentrated, and therefore the source is effectively smaller. The precise shape of the light curve from the planet will depend on the scattering properties of the atmosphere, which in turn depend on the constituents of the atmosphere, such as the size of the condensates (Seager & Sasselov, 2000). Therefore resolution of the planetary caustic crossing would provide invaluable information about the physical processes in the planetary atmosphere. This is complementary to the suggestion by Lewis & Ibata (2000) of probing the planetary atmosphere via polizarization monitoring during the planetary caustic crossing.

## 5 Detectability

In this section, we review the magnitudes of the effects of the features we have considered, and assess their detectability with current and/or future telescopes. Table 5 summarizes our analytic expressions for the magnitudes $`\delta _x`$ of the deviations caused by each structure $`x`$ that we considered (satellites, rings, spots, and zonal bands), in terms of the magnitude $`\delta _\mathrm{p}`$ of the deviation due to only the planet. Also shown is the characteristic timescale $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_x`$ of each deviation, relative to the timescale of the planetary caustic crossing $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_\mathrm{p}`$.

By approximating the perturbations from each structure $`x`$ as boxcars with amplitudes $`\delta _x`$ and durations $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_x`$, we can write down approximate expressions for the ratio of the signal-to-noise $`Q_x`$ for a given perturbation to the signal-to-noise of the planetary pertrubation,

$$\frac{Q_x}{Q_\mathrm{p}}\left|\frac{\delta _x}{\delta _\mathrm{p}}\right|\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }t_x}{\mathrm{\Delta }t_\mathrm{p}}\right)^{1/2}.$$
(27)
These ratios are displayed in Table 5; they allow one to easily estimate the detectability of the various features in terms of the detectability of the planetary deviation. For example, if one were to require a signal-to-noise ratio of $`Q_\mathrm{p}=20`$ for a secure detection of the planet signal, then signal-to-noise of the deviation from a ring with relative albedo $`\kappa _{\mathrm{ri}}=0.15`$ and relative (outer) radius of $`R_{\mathrm{ri}}/R_\mathrm{p}=4`$ would be $`Q_{\mathrm{ri}}0.15\times \sqrt{4}\times 20=6`$. For reasonable parameters, we expect that $`Q_x/Q_\mathrm{p}1`$ for satellites, spots, and bands, whereas for rings $`Q_{\mathrm{ri}}/Q_\mathrm{p}30\%`$.

We now provide a more accurate estimate of the expected signal-to-noise for the various features. Assume that a microlensing light curve is monitored continuously from $`t_{min}`$ to $`t_{max}`$, for a total duration $`T`$, with a telescope that collects $`n_\nu `$ photons per second per unit flux. The signal-to-noise ratio $`Q_x`$ of a deviation $`\mathrm{\Delta }A_x(t)`$ is then,

$$Q_x=(n_\nu T)^{1/2}\frac{F_{}}{(B+F_{})^{1/2}}\left\{\frac{1}{T}_{t_{min}}^{t_{max}}𝑑t[\mathrm{\Delta }A_x(t)]^2\right\}^{1/2},$$
(28)
where $`F_{}`$ is the unlensed flux of the primary star, and $`B`$ is the background flux (sky + unresolved stars). The term in curly brackets is essentially the RMS of the deviation during the time of the observations. We assume that the source system is an analog of HD20458 at $`D_{\mathrm{os}}=8`$ kpc. The primary has $`I_{}=19.5`$ (a G0V star at $`8`$ kpc with 1.2 magnitudes of extinction), and its planet has $`R_\mathrm{p}=1.347R_{Jup}`$, $`a=0.0468\mathrm{AU}`$, and $`𝒜_\mathrm{p}=2/3`$. Adopting typical bulge parameters ($`M=0.3M_{},D_{\mathrm{ol}}=6\mathrm{kpc},D_{\mathrm{os}}=8\mathrm{kpc}`$), and a caustic crossing with properties $`u_r=1`$ and $`\gamma =90^{}`$, this gives $`\delta _\mathrm{p}=7.93\times 10^3`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_\mathrm{p}=8\mathrm{min}`$. We assume a total background flux of $`19.3`$, which includes the moon-averaged sky background at an average site, and the contribution expected from unresolved stars in the bulge for a seeing of $`0.75^{\prime \prime }`$. We assume that a telescope of diameter $`A_T`$ collects $`n_\nu =2700(A_T/10\mathrm{m})^2`$ photons per second at $`I=20`$, which corresponds to an overall throughput (including detector efficiency) of $`50\%`$. Finally, we assume that the light curve is monitored from $`5\mathrm{\Delta }t_\mathrm{p}`$ before the caustic crossing until $`5\mathrm{\Delta }t_\mathrm{p}`$ after the caustic crossing of the primary star, for a total duration of $`T80`$min.

The resulting signal-to-noise values for the various deviations are tabulated in Table 5. For 10m-class telescopes, the deviation from the planet should be detectable with $`Q_\mathrm{p}15`$. This is in rough agreement with the results of Graff & Gaudi (2000) and Ashton & Lewis (2001) for full phases. However, Ashton & Lewis (2001) find that the signal-to-noise depends quite strongly on the phase of the planet. Adopting a different phase would therefore affect the relative signal-to-noise $`Q_x/Q_\mathrm{p}`$ between the planet and the satellite, ring, spot or band features, but generally not the absolute signal-to-noise $`Q_x`$. For the deviations from the other structures, we have adopted the parameter values appropriate to the short-dashed line in Figure 2 for the satellite, the dotted line in Figure 3 for the ring, the short-dashed line in Figure 7 for the spot, and the long-dashed line in Figure 8 for the zonal bands. For these perturbations we find signal-to-noise ratios of $`Q_{\mathrm{sa}}=0.1`$ (satellite), $`Q_{\mathrm{ri}}=6.1`$ (ring), $`Q_{\mathrm{sp}}=0.1`$ (spot), and $`Q_{\mathrm{ba}}=0.1`$ (zonal bands). These are in rough agreement with the expected scaling with $`Q_\mathrm{p}`$, and generally indicate that it will be impossible to detect spots, bands, and satellites with 10m-class telescopes. Rings are potentially detectable, but only under somewhat optimistic scenarios, i.e. large, face-on rings. We therefore consider the detectability with larger-aperture telescopes, such as the proposed 30-meter aperture California Extremely Large Telescope (CELT) (Nelson, 2000), or the European Space Agency’s proposed 100-meter aperture Overwhelmingly Large Telescope (OWL) (Dierickx & Gilmozzi, 2000). We find that rings will generally be detectable with reasonable signal-to-noise for $`A_T30`$m, and spots, satellites and bands are likely to be undetectable with any foreseeable telescope.

For the deviations caused by Lambert scattering shown in Figure 10, we find that $`Q1\%Q_\mathrm{p}`$. Therefore, the non-uniform nature of the surface brightness may be measurable with 100m-class telescopes.

## 6 Summary and Conclusion

Planetary companions to the source stars of caustic crossing microlensing events can be detected via the brief deviation created when the caustic transits the planet, magnifying the reflected light from the star. The magnitude of the planetary deviation is $`\delta _\mathrm{p}ϵ_\mathrm{p}\rho _\mathrm{p}^{1/2}`$, where $`ϵ_\mathrm{p}`$ is the fraction of the flux of the star that is reflected by the planet, and $`\rho _\mathrm{p}`$ is the angular size of the planet in units of the angular Einstein ring radius of the lens. For giant, close-in planets (similar to HD20958b), $`ϵ_\mathrm{p}10^4`$, and for typical events toward the Galactic bulge, $`\rho _\mathrm{p}10^4`$. Thus $`\delta _\mathrm{p}1\%`$, which is accessible to 10m-class ground-based telescopes.

Due to the extraordinarily high angular resolution afforded by caustic crossings, fine structures in and around the planet are, in principle, also detectable. We first presented a brief discussion on the existence and stability of satellites, rings and atmospheric features of close-in planets, concluding that although rings and satellites may be short-lived due to dynamical forces, the ultimate fate of such structures is not clear. There are good reasons to believe that atmospheric features may be important in close-in planets. We therefore considered the signatures of satellites, rings, spots, zonal bands, and non-uniform surface brightness profiles on the light curves of planetary caustic-crossings. Where possible, we used semi-analytic approximations to derive useful expressions for the magnitude of the deviations expected for these features, as a function of the relevant parameters, such as the albedo or size of the feature. We express these deviations in terms of $`\delta _\mathrm{p}`$, the magnitude of the planetary deviation.

We find that rings produce deviations of amplitude $`10\%\delta _\mathrm{p}`$, whereas spots, zonal bands, and satellites all produce deviations of order $`1\%\delta _\mathrm{p}`$. These semi-analytic estimates are supported by more detailed numerical simulations. We also find that the light curve of a planet with the surface brightness profile expected from Lambert scattering deviates from that of a uniform source by $`10\%\delta _\mathrm{p}`$. This affords the possibility of probing the physical processes of the atmospheres of distant extrasolar planets by constraining their surface brightness profiles, and therefore the scattering properties of their constituent particles.

We assessed the detectability of spots, rings, satellites, and bands with current and future telescopes. We found that, for reasonable assumptions and 10m-class telescopes, the planetary deviation will have a signal-to-noise of $`15`$, a ring system will only be marginally detectable with a signal-to-noise of $`6`$, and all other features will be completely undetectable. For 30m-class or larger telescopes, rings should be easily detectable, The detection of the non-uniform nature of the planetary surface brightness profile arising from Lambert scattering requires 100m-class telescopes for bare detection. Spots, satellites and zonal bands are essentially undetectable for even the largest telescopes apertures.

We would like to thank Eugene Chiang, Sara Seager, and Gil Holder for invaluable discussions. We would also like to thank the anonymous referee for useful comments and suggestions. This work was supported by the Astrophysical Research Center for the Structure and Evolution of the Cosmos (ARCSEC) of Korean Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) through Science Research Center (SRC) program, and by NASA through a Hubble Fellowship grant from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555.


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# Break-up and electromagnetic response of light weakly-bound dicluster systems.

## 1 Discussion of the model

We adhere to the description of $`^7`$Li as a dicluster system formed by an $`\alpha `$ plus a $`t`$. It was shown by many authors  that this way of treating the system gives a good description of the properties of the nucleus under study. We solved the Schrödinger equation for the relative motion of the two clusters (considered as frozen spherical distributions of charge and mass). Both coulomb and nuclear interactions have been included, the former being corrected at small distances for the finite extension of the charge distributions, the latter having a common Woods-Saxon shape whose depth has been adjusted in each case to give the correct energy for both bound and resonant states in the continuum. This provides both resonant and non-resonant strength. The wavefunctions that we have found differ slightly from the ones obtained within the RGM method, having however very similar spatial extension. The calculated charge and matter radii, electric and matter quadrupole intrinsic moments are found to be in good agreement with the experimental data.

## 2 Results

We calculated the transition from the $`3/2^{}`$ ground state to the $`1/2^{}`$ excited bound state obtaining $`B(E2)=7.55e^2fm^4`$ and $`B(M1)=2.45\mu ^2`$, both very close to the measured values . The results for dipole and quadrupole transitions to the continuum are displayed in fig. (1). In addition to the resonant quadrupole strength associated with the f-states, a concentration of strength at low energy is clearly seen. It has the same nature as in  where it is explained as due to a favourable matching between the wavelengths of the initial weakly-bound wavefunction and of the final one in the continuum.
For what concern reaction studies the microscopic derivation of formfactors has been done with a twofold aim: to elucidate the dependence on the distance of two interacting ions and on the energy in the continuum, and to set the relevance of the nuclear break-up that is found to be dominant still at $`14fm`$ (about the double of the sum of radii in a reaction with a heavy target). The study of such reactions is currently under investigation.

## Acknowledgements

I am particularly indebted to Andrea Vitturi for sharing with me his ideas, intuitions and computer codes and for the patience which he had constantly shown towards me. The work and the participation to the Symposium have been both supported by INFN and Dip. di Fisica di Padova .


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# Did Zhao & Qin Solve the Apparant Conflict Beween Gravitational Lens Time Delays, Dark Matter and the Hubble Constant?

## 1 Discussion

In a series of papers (Kochanek \[astro-ph/0204043\], \[astro-ph/0205319\], \[astro-ph/0206006\]) we have been exploring the relationship between recently measured gravitational lens time delays, the expected properties of CDM halos, and local estimates of the Hubble constant. At least at present, there seems to be a problem because reconciling the time delays with the local estimates of the Hubble constant seems to require constant $`M/L`$ distributions in which the mass traces the light, quite different from our theoretical expectations and other evidence against constant $`M/L`$ on the relevant scales. While no position was taken on the solution to the problem, one suspects it is a combination of problems in all three elements.

Unfortunately, we cannot determine the dark matter distributions of the time delay lenses given the available model constraints, so it is relatively easy to propose alternate mass distributions for these lenses. In particular, we demonstrated in Kochanek (2002, \[astro-ph/0205319\]) that the time delays of gravitational lenses are controlled by the projected surface density of the lens in the annulus between the images for which the delay is measured. Zhao & Qin (\[astro-ph/0209191\], \[astro-ph/0209304\]) use this degeneracy to create mass distributions with high Hubble constants and massive dark matter halos. In essence, they use a constant M/L model for the lens out to the radius of the outer lensed image. Since this model has a low surface density in the annulus between the images it allows a high Hubble constant. They then attach a dark halo with a flat rotation curve onto the mass distribution starting at the outer most lensed image. Essentially by Gauss’ law, the halo affects neither the lens model constraints nor the high Hubble constant estimate permitted by the constant M/L central regions of the model.

Two simple points have been lost in generating the models.

First, it is not a new degeneracy. It is exactly the same degeneracy we discussed in Kochanek (2002, \[astro-ph/0205319\]) and was partially discussed by Saha (2000), Gorenstein et al. (1988) and Falco et al. (1985). The value of the Hubble constant found for a given time delay is (basically) proportional to $`1\kappa `$ where $`\kappa `$ is the average surface density in units of the critical surface density for lensing in the annulus between the images for which the delay is measured. The Key Project value of 70km/s/Mpc requires $`0.1<\kappa <0.2`$ given the delays in the 4 simplest time delay lenses. The observed lens geometry constrains the mass enclosed by the Einstein ring, for a fixed Hubble constant the time delay constrains the surface density near the ring, and you can then attach whatever exterior (monopole) mass distribution you desire without affecting any observable properties of the lens. Zhao & Qin simply produce a particular realization of such a model.

Second, while the Zhao & Qin mass model has an infinitely massive dark matter halo, it is not a model consistent with the expectations of CDM. CDM predicts not only the existence but also the structure of the dark halos surrounding galaxies. The Zhao & Qin model can be thought of as a model in which the central cusp of the dark matter distribution has been destroyed and replaced by a finite core radius at least as large as the Einstein ring of the lens. In Kochanek (2002, \[astro-ph/0206006\]) we illustrated how CDM halo models are related to time delays and the Hubble constant, and demonstrated that the two can be reconciled provided the mass fraction represented by the visible lens galaxy is large. Given the globally small baryonic mass fraction of halos, standard CDM halo models have difficulty reducing the amount of dark matter in the central regions enough to allow a large Hubble constant. The Zhao & Qin model solves this problem by giving the dark matter a distribution which avoids the central regions of the halo. It is not, however, a standard CDM halo.

In fact, the Zhao & Qin model is very similar to the solutions proposed for the rotation curves of dwarf galaxies (see van den Bosch & Swaters \[astro-ph/0006048\] or McGaugh \[astro-ph/0107490\] and references therein). The rotation curves of some dwarf and low surface brightness galaxies seem to be inconsistent with the relatively high central dark matter densities implied by the NFW or Moore profiles, suggesting to some that the cusp must somehow be converted into a large finite core radius (e.g. the Burkert (1995, ApJL 447 25) profile). There is, however, considerable debate about the existence and significance of the conflict between CDM halo models and dwarf/LSB rotation curves. The Zhao & Qin model represents the same class of solution – keep a massive dark matter halo but greatly reduce its central concentration compared to the cuspy CDM halo models. Just as in the dwarf/LSB galaxies, this allows the central mass distribution to follow the stellar distribution, and constant M/L mass distributions for the time delay lenses lead to values of the Hubble constant large enough to agree with local estimates.

While it is certainly correct that the present data on the time delay lenses cannot exclude the Zhao & Qin mass distribution, it is probably ruled out as a general distribution from other observations. In particular, where lenses do constrain the shape of the rotation curve directly, they almost always favor an essentially flat rotation curve inside the Einstein ring rather than the more Keplerian form of the Zhao & Qin model. The most interesting recent demonstrations of this have come from Koopmans & Treu (\[astro-ph/0202342\], \[astro-ph/0205281\]) who combine lensing constraints with measurement of the velocity dispersions of the lens galaxy to show that the two lenses MG2016+112 and 0047-281 have mass distributions corresponding to flat rotation curves. These mass distributions imply $`\kappa 0.5`$ on the corresponding scales of the time delay lenses and are consistent with $`\rho r^1`$ central cusps in the dark matter. While it is always possible that some time delay lenses have peculiar halo properties, it seems unlikely that all 4 of the (apparently) simple delay lenses have peculiar halo properties.

In summary, Zhao & Qin are using the known degeneracy between surface density and gravitational lens time delays to invent a dark matter distribution which allows for a high Hubble constant. The solution is to change the structure of CDM halos so they are significantly less centrally concentrated (cuspy) than present theories. While this may well be an element of the solution to the problem, it is important to recognize the implications of the proposal – galaxies can still have dark matter halos, but CDM theory has failed to accurately predict their structure.


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# A Radio Survey for Linear and Circular Polarization in Low Luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei

## 1 Introduction

Circular and linear polarization are important diagnostics of nonthermal radio emission and its environment in extragalactic radio sources and galactic micro-quasars. In active galactic nuclei (AGN), linear polarization (LP) has been used to demonstrate that the emission mechanism is synchrotron radiation, that magnetic fields are present and that shocks propagate in jets, compressing the magnetic fields (e.g., Marscher & Gear, 1985). LP is typically greater than 1% and is present in a very high fraction of powerful extragalactic radio sources (Aller et al., 1992). Rotation measures are used to study the plasma density and magnetic field in accretion and outflow regions of AGN (Taylor, 2000).

The significance of circular polarization (CP) is less clear. A variety of mechanisms can produce the small levels of CP seen in these sources, including intrinsic and extrinsic origins (Jones & Odell, 1977; Macquart & Melrose, 2000; Broderick & Blandford, 2000; Beckert & Falcke, 2002; Ruszkowski & Begelman, 2002). Synchrotron and cyclotron emission produce CP in varying degrees depending on the the electron population, magnetic field strength and orientation. Coherent emission processes may also lead to CP. In addition, the presence of electrons with Lorentz factors $`1`$ in or near a synchrotron source can significantly alter both CP and LP through Faraday effects. The combination of these effects can lead to complex polarized spectra. Finally, a magnetized scattering region can produce scintillating CP.

Recently, there has been a sharp increase in interest in CP observations. CP has been detected in Sagittarius A\* (Bower et al., 1999b; Sault & Macquart, 1999; Bower et al., 2002a), a large number of powerful extragalactic radio sources (Rayner et al., 2000; Homan et al., 2001) including some IDV sources (Macquart et al., 2000), and galactic microquasars (Fender et al., 2000, 2002). VLBI imaging of powerful extragalactic radio sources indicate that the CP is confined to the cores. The spectral and variability properties in these sources vary widely indicating potentially diverse origins. In most sources, LP dominates CP, as expected for simple synchrotron sources. A notable exception to this is Sgr A\*, which exhibits no LP.

The polarization properties of low luminosity AGN (LLAGN) have not been previously investigated. Rudnick et al. (1986) observed the LP of a sample of “weak” radio sources ($`L10^{23}10^{26}\mathrm{W}\mathrm{Hz}^1`$) with flat spectra. Many of these sources were unpolarized at a level of 1% at 15 GHz, suggesting that they are not simply scaled down versions of powerful AGN. However, there exists a significant gap in luminosity between these sources and Sgr A\*, which has a radio luminosity $`10^{16}\mathrm{W}\mathrm{Hz}^1`$.

The intrinsic nature of the LLAGN is still in doubt (for recent reviews see Ulvestad & Ho, 2001; Nagar et al., 2002). These sources display emission line luminosities that may be produced through a variety of mechanisms, including stellar photoionization, collisional ionization through shocks or in a starburst. A variety of methods have demonstrated that some of the sources display AGN-like characteristics. However, as in the case of Sgr A\*, the luminosities are substantially sub-Eddington and there is dispute over the roles of advection, convection and outflow in these sources. The detection of high brightness temperature radio components has made a strong case for the role of jets in these sources. LP and CP can act as probes of the radio-emitting region as well as of the accretion and outflow regions through which the emission propagates.

We present here a radio polarization survey of 11 nearby LLAGN with luminosities in the range $`10^{20}`$ to $`10^{23}`$ $`\mathrm{W}\mathrm{Hz}^1`$. In §2, we describe the observations, our error analysis and the results. CP is only detected in one source, NGC 3031 (M81\*). We have discussed the significance of this detection in another paper (Brunthaler et al., 2001). LP is detected in 4 sources. We discuss our results in §3 and summarize in §4.

## 2 Observations

A sample of 11 LLAGN was selected from the samples of Wrobel & Heeschen (1991) and Ho et al. (1995). The selected sources (Table 1) are the brightest radio sources in the catalogs for which we were able to obtain data.

We observed the sample with the Very Large Array in the C configuration on 4 April 2000 for 12 hours at 8.4 GHz. The correlator was configured for continuum observations with 50 MHz bandwidth each in two intermediate frequency bands in right (RCP) and left circular polarization (LCP). The angular resolution was about $`3^{\prime \prime }`$.

Observations were carried out with the same techniques described in Bower et al. (1999b) and Bower et al. (2002a). Absolute flux calibration was set with a short observation of 3C 48. Scans of the target sources were bracketed with scans for pointing and calibration on a nearby background compact radio source. A second nearby background compact radio source was observed in the same way as the target sources as a check for CP calibration errors. We cycled through calibration and target sources in about 10 minutes. Calibrator, target and check sources were placed in five groups, labeled A through E, based on their proximity on the sky. Integration time for each target source was set to achieve rms noise errors of less than 0.1% except for the weak sources I 1024 and NGC 3516. Observations were made over 12 hours, leading to significant changes in parallactic angle, azimuth angle and elevation angle for each source. At least 4 observations were made of each source.

Data were reduced in AIPS. The calibration sources were self-calibrated assuming $`V=0`$. Linear polarization calibration was also performed using the calibration sources. Amplitude gains, phase gains and polarization leakage terms were transferred to the target and check sources. All sources were imaged in Stokes I, Q, U and V. Flux densities were estimated by fitting Gaussians at the source’s location. Results are summarized in Table 1. Some sources were resolved in total intensity. However, polarization images were unresolved for all sources except NGC 4374 and NGC 4486. We plot the linear and circular polarizations together in Figure A Radio Survey for Linear and Circular Polarization in Low Luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei.

Systematic errors from beam squint, gain and leakage terms are estimated according to the model for the VLA in Bower et al. (2002a) to be between 0.03 and 0.05% in total, depending on the number of scans per source. We see that that measured CP for the check sources range from 0.03 to 0.45% with a median of 0.14%. The likely source of additional error is polarization of the calibrator and/or check source. NGC 3031 is the only source where the measured CP exceeds that of the check source and is greater than 3 times the thermal noise. The CP for NGC 3031 is, in fact, 10 times the thermal noise and repeatedly detectable (Brunthaler et al., 2001). We do not count NGC 6500 as a CP detection because of the large measured CP for the check source, J1745+173. The two large CP values with the same sign suggest that the calibrator, J1751+096, may have CP at a level of $`0.4\%`$. Homan & Wardle (1999) report a tentative detection of $`0.1\%`$ for J1751+096 in their 15 GHz VLBA observations, which is consistent in sign and in magnitude for a steep spectral index.

## 3 Discussion

### 3.1 Confusion

For all sources, the measured polarization fractions are lower limits to the polarization of the nuclear source. For a typical distance of 10 Mpc, the linear resolution of these observations is $`100`$ pc. Diffuse thermal radiation can contribute significantly to the total flux. However, for the sources for which we know of VLBI observations, the compact radio flux is a substantial component of the total flux. NGC 3031 and NGC 4486 (M87) both have well-studied VLBI properties, which show that a compact core dominates the total flux (Junor et al., 1999; Bietenholz et al., 2000). Falcke et al. (2000) and Nagar et al. (2001) also show that the ratio of 5 GHz VLBA to VLA flux densities is on the order of unity for five of our sources: NGC 4278, NGC 4374, NGC 4552, NGC 4579 and NGC 6500. For all 13 sources in the Nagar et al. (2001) sample, the ratio is greater than 0.48. Nevertheless, a factor of a few in the ratio of total to compact flux density would raise the polarization limits to the point where Sgr A\* and NGC 3031 would not be detected.

### 3.2 Linear Polarization

We detect LP in 3 of 11 sources: NGC 4278, NGC 4486, and NGC 4579. These results show that some LLAGN do exhibit LP, contrary to the conclusions of Rudnick et al. (1986), which were based on less sensitive data. This is strong evidence for a nonthermal contribution to the flux density.

However, the rate of detection of LP is lower than that of more powerful AGN. For example, Homan et al. (2001) detect LP in all but 3 of their 40 sources with a mean value of a few percent. In addition, the fraction of LP detected in our sources is lower than in more powerful AGN. Excluding M87, the mean fractional LP is $`0.2\%`$. Of the 62 sources in the Pearson-Readhead flux-limited sample, 39 have polarization greater than 1% at 4.8 GHz and 57 have polarization greater than 1% at 15 GHz (Aller et al., 1992). Mean polarizations are on the order of a few percent. These trends are true for quasars, BL Lac objects and radio galaxies in the sample. This difference cannot be explained by confusion. All three sources have been previously detected with VLBI and been shown to be dominated by their compact flux (Junor et al., 1999; Nagar et al., 2001).

Are the LLAGN intrinsically weakly polarized or are they depolarized by their surrounding medium? A number of scenarios may lead to intrinsic depolarization. Extreme magnetic field disorder in the source will leave the source weakly polarized. This may be due to the absence of shocks in jets that order the field and produce regions of high polarization fraction. A high degree of symmetry in the magnetic field, i.e., a face on azimuthal field or a radial field will also lead to a weakly polarized source. Such field configurations might be typical of disk accretion or quasi-spherical accretion. Finally, internal Faraday depolarization may occur if the density of nonrelativistic particles in the emitting region is large enough (e.g., Beckert & Falcke, 2002; Ruszkowski & Begelman, 2002).

On the other hand, depolarization in the accretion, outflow or surrounding regions is more than adequate to account for this result. Beam and bandwidth depolarization at these frequencies and in these bandwidths will occur for rotation measures of $`10^3\mathrm{rad}\mathrm{m}^2`$ and $`10^5\mathrm{rad}\mathrm{m}^2`$, respectively. Taylor (2000) has measured RMs as large as $`2\times 10^3\mathrm{rad}\mathrm{m}^2`$ towards the cores of powerful AGN. Bower et al. (2002b) have measured a RM$`4\times 10^5\mathrm{rad}\mathrm{m}^2`$ towards Sagittarius A\*, which may arise from the accretion and outflow regions or from an interstellar halo. Even for the very low accretion rates of ADAF and CDAF models of Sgr A\*, RMs can easily reach $`10^6\mathrm{rad}\mathrm{m}^2`$ and higher (Bower et al., 1999a; Quataert & Gruzinov, 2000). The radio emission from our sources almost certainly propagates through similar media. In the case of NGC 4258, for example, the radio emission originates from within 0.02 pc of the black hole (Herrnstein et al., 1998). On the other hand, the radio emission from much more powerful AGN may begin parsecs away from the black hole.

The radio intermediate quasar III Zw 2 provides an interesting case for comparison. This compact radio source ($`<1`$ pc) shows superluminal expansion and spectral evolution consistent with shock excitation in a relativistic outflow (Brunthaler et al., 2001). However, the source exhibits no linear polarization in 20 years of monitoring (M. Aller, private communication).

In order to look for the effects of bandwidth depolarization and large RMs, we compared the difference between lower and upper sideband position angles for all sources. These sidebands are each 50 MHz wide and separated from each other by 50 MHz. We find a significant change only for NGC 4579 of $`60\pm 13`$ degrees. Systematic error due to leakage term miscalibration is less than 10 degrees. By comparison, NGC 4278, which is polarized at a level similar to NGC 4579, shows a difference of 6 degrees in the position angle. Changes in the position angle for calibrator sources were also consistent with thermal noise. The implied RM for NGC 4579 is $`7\times 10^4\mathrm{rad}\mathrm{m}^2`$. This would lead to bandwidth depolarization $`0.5`$, which does not significantly increase the intrinsic LP. However, one cannot rule out a much higher RM inducing more substantial depolarization as well as the angular rotation. We can compute an upper limit for the RM $`10^7\mathrm{rad}\mathrm{m}^2`$ with the requirement of a maximum of 70% intrinsic polarization.

As discussed above, this RM could arise from a variety of sources. Without more detailed knowledge of the source geometry, it is difficult to place limits on specific source models such as jet, ADAF and CDAF models. Unlike the case of millimeter wavelength polarization in Sgr A\*, the centimeter wavelength emission from NGC 4579 may originate far outside of the accretion region. However, if the emission does pass through the accretion region, then the accretion rate must be very low (Bower et al., 1999a; Quataert & Gruzinov, 2000).

Spectropolarimetry, higher frequency polarimetry and VLBI polarimetry are potentially useful tests of these scenarios. They could provide quantitative information about field strengths and particle densities in the inner few parsecs of these sources.

### 3.3 Circular Polarization

We compare the rates of detection of CP here with that in powerful extragalactic radio sources. At a level of $`0.1\%`$, we detect 1 out of 9 sources. Rayner et al. (2000) detect CP greater than 0.1% in 12 out of 30 sources. Homan et al. (2001) detect CP greater than 0.1% in 11 out of 40 sources. Due to the small number of sources in our sample, we cannot conclude that the rate of CP in LLAGN is less than that in powerful AGN. However, the trend appears to be that way.

What physical condition leads to the presence of CP in some sources and not in others? NGC 3031 and Sgr A\* are both unique in that they have inverted spectra at the frequencies where CP is detected. We summarize the spectral index information for sources where simultaneous spectra are available in Figure A Radio Survey for Linear and Circular Polarization in Low Luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei. All spectral indices come from the measurements of Nagar et al. (2001). While the number of sources is small, the trend is apparent.

This effect may be the result of an inhomogeneous synchrotron source in the optically thick regime (Beckert & Falcke, 2002; Ruszkowski & Begelman, 2002). Orientation effects may also be of importance since the magnitude of CP from a synchrotron source depends on the line of sight magnetic field strength. Finally, NGC 3031 is also the closest of our survey sources, suggesting that resolution of thermal sources in the nucleus and of extended optically, thin regions in the jet may be important.

## 4 Conclusions

We have observed linear and circular polarization in a sample of low luminosity AGN. The polarization properties of these sources differ from those of more powerful AGN. Linear polarization is less frequently detected and less strong when detected. Circular polarization is less frequently detected. The conclusion is not as simple as claiming that these sources differ intrinsically from the more powerful AGN, however. While increased field disorder in the sources could explain the results, environmental depolarization effects could also play a role.

These polarization measurements probe regions on a scale of parsecs and smaller in these sources. Detection of rotation measures in these sources is a direct measure of the environment of a supermassive black hole, which may be used to constrain models for accretion and outflow.

A broader sample of sources is necessary to demonstrate that the trends we see are statistically significant. VLBI polarimetric imaging and spectropolarimetry may also test some of these conclusions.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. This research has made use of data from the University of Michigan Radio Astronomy Observatory which is supported by funds from the University of Michigan.