Detecting extrasolar asteroid belts through their microlensing signatures

Abstract

We propose that extrasolar asteroid belts can be detected through their gravitational microlensing signatures. Asteroid belt + star lens systems create so-called ‘pseudo-caustics’, regions in the source plane where the magnification exhibits a finite but discontinuous jump. These features allow such systems to generate distinctive signatures in the microlensing light curves for a wide range of belt configurations, with source trajectories as far as tenths of the Einstein ring radius from the centre of the lens. Sample light curves for a range of asteroid belt parameters are presented. In the near future, space-based microlensing surveys like WFIRST, which will have the power of detecting per cent-level changes in microlensing light curves even with subminute exposure times, may be able to discover extrasolar asteroid belts with masses of the order of an earth mass.