Microlensing optical depth and event rate in the OGLE-IV Galactic plane
  fields
  Searches for gravitational microlensing events are traditionally concentrated
on the central regions of the Galactic bulge but many microlensing events are
expected to occur in the Galactic plane, far from the Galactic Center. Owing to
the difficulty in conducting high-cadence observations of the Galactic plane
over its vast area, which are necessary for the detection of microlensing
events, their global properties were hitherto unknown. Here, we present results
of the first comprehensive search for microlensing events in the Galactic
plane. We searched an area of almost 3000 square degrees along the Galactic
plane (|b|<7, 0<l<50, 190<l<360 deg) observed by the Optical Gravitational
Lensing Experiment (OGLE) during 2013-2019 and detected 630 events. We
demonstrate that the mean Einstein timescales of Galactic plane microlensing
events are on average three times longer than those of Galactic bulge events,
with little dependence on the Galactic longitude. We also measure the
microlensing optical depth and event rate as a function of Galactic longitude
and demonstrate that they exponentially decrease with the angular distance from
the Galactic Center (with the characteristic angular scale length of 32 deg).
The average optical depth decreases from $0.5\times 10^{-6}$ at l=10 deg to
$1.5\times 10^{-8}$ in the Galactic anticenter. We also find that the optical
depth in the longitude range 240<l<330 deg is asymmetric about the Galactic
equator, which we interpret as a signature of the Galactic warp.
