Study by MOA of extrasolar planets in gravitational microlensing events of high magnification

A search for extrasolar planets was carried out in three gravitational microlensing events of high magnification, MACHO 98-BLG-35, MACHO 99-LMC-2 and OGLE 00-BUL-12. Photometry was derived from observational images by the MOA and OGLE groups using an image subtraction technique. For MACHO 98-BLG-35, additional photometry derived from the MPS and PLANET groups was included. Planetary modelling of the three events was carried out in a supercluster computing environment. The estimated probability for explaining the data on MACHO 98-BLG-35 without a planet is <1 per cent. The best planetary model has a planet of mass ~(0.4-1.5)×M_Earth at a projected radius of either ~1.5 or ~2.3au. We show how multiplanet models can be applied to the data. We calculate exclusion regions for the three events and find that Jupiter-mass planets can be excluded with projected radii from as wide as about 30au to as close as around 0.5au for MACHO 98-BLG-35 and OGLE 00-BUL-12. For MACHO 99-LMC-2, the exclusion region extends out to around 10au and constitutes the first limit placed on a planetary companion to an extragalactic star. We derive a particularly high peak magnification of ~160 for OGLE 00-BUL-12. We discuss the detectability of planets with masses as low as Mercury in this and similar events.