The number of US scientists working in the exoplanet microlensing field is small, and the microlensing method is considered to be obscure by many scientists in the exoplanet field. In order to overcome this shortage of exoplanet microlensing experts, the Roman Project and the Science Support Center (SSC) have begun to produce a very large set of high level data products to enable newcomers to the field to work productively with the data. The RGES PIT works very closely with the Roman Science Centers, the Roman Project team and the Community Science Collaborations relevant to the GBTDS to develop and test these data products.

2018 Data Challenge

The microlensing community held a data challenge in 2018 with the aim of stimulating research on microlensing modeling in preparation for the Roman microlensing survey. The specific goals of the 2018 data challenge were:

  • To stimulate research effort into outstanding modeling issues
  • To stimulate development of algorithms to detect and classify microlensing events in Roman data
  • To stimulate development of software for modeling microlensing events, capable of conducting analyses of Roman-scale datasets

Results of the data challenge as well as lessons learned, evaluation metrics, and other takeaways can be found on the 2018 Data Challenge webpage.

All of the photometric data used in the 2018 Data Challenge is public, and can be downloaded from the Github repository.

Updated Roman Simulated Microlensing Light Curves (2024-2025)

An updated set of simulated microlensing light curves (which include lens orbital motion, parallax, and limb darkening) has been generated and is hosted by the RGES PIT. The dataset includes 10,000 microlensing light curves in total, of which approximately 2,000 have passed an initial ‘detectability’ cut. The dataset is split into several bins in planet mass (0.01, 0.1, 1.0 10.0, 100.0, and 1000.0 earth masses).

All of the raw light curve data is hosted by LSU and will be available to the public in the near future.

We will continue to make our photometry, astrometry and event modeling data and software publicly available and user-friendly to enable broad participation in RGES science. The same is true for our exoplanet yield simulation tools, and this will enable those interested in doing science with the GBTDS to assess how the survey parameters affect their science yield, as well as that of the RGES.