We complete the survey for finite-source/point-lens (FSPL) giant-source events in 2016–2019 KMTNet microlensing data. The 30 FSPL events show a clear gap in Einstein radius, 9 μas < θE < 26 μas, which is consistent with the gap in Einstein timescales near tE ∼ 0.5 days found by Mr´oz et al. (2017) in an independent sample of point-source/point-lens (PSPL) events. We demonstrate that the two surveys are consistent. We estimate that the 4 events below this gap are due to a power-law distribution of freefloating planet candidates (FFPs) dNFFP/d logM = (0.4 ± 0.2) (M/38 M⊕)−p/star, with 0.9 ≲ p ≲ 1.2. There are substantially more FFPs than known bound planets, implying that the bound planet power-law index γ = 0.6 is likely shaped by the ejection process at least as much as by formation. The mass density per decade of FFPs in the Solar neighborhood is of the same order as that of ‘Oumuamua-like objects. In particular, if we assume that ‘Oumuamua is part of the same process that ejected the FFPs to very wide or unbound orbits, the power-law index is p = 0.89 ± 0.06. If the Solar System’s endowment of Neptune-mass objects in Neptune-like orbits is typical, which is consistent with the results of Poleski et al. (2021), then these could account for a substantial fraction of the FFPs in the Neptune-mass range.

We present the analysis of a planetary microlensing event OGLE-2019-BLG-0362 with a shortduration anomaly (∼0.4 days) near the peak of the light curve, which is caused by the resonant caustic. The event has a severe degeneracy with Δχ2 = 0.9 between the close and the wide binary lens models both with planet-host mass ratio q ≃ 0.007. We measure the angular Einstein radius but not the microlens parallax, and thus we perform a Bayesian analysis to estimate the physical parameters of the lens. We find that the OGLE-2019-BLG-0362L system is a super-Jovian-mass planet Mp = 3.26+0.83 −0.58 MJ orbiting an M dwarf Mh = 0.42+0.34 −0.23 M⊙ at a distance DL = 5.83+1.04 −1.55 kpc. The projected star-planet separation is a⊥ = 2.18+0.58 −0.72 AU, which indicates that the planet lies beyond the snow line of the host star.

We report the discovery of a giant exoplanet in the microlensing event OGLE-2017-BLG-1049, with a planet―host star mass ratio of q = 9.53 ± 0.39 × 10-3 and a caustic crossing feature in Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) observations. The caustic crossing feature yields an angular Einstein radius of θE = 0.52 ± 0.11 mas. However, the microlens parallax is not measured because the time scale of the event, tE ≃ 29 days, is too short. Thus, we perform a Bayesian analysis to estimate physical quantities of the lens system. We find that the lens system has a star with mass Mh = 0.55+0.36 -0.29 M⊙ hosting a giant planet with Mp = 5.53+3.62 -2.87 MJup, at a distance of DL = 5.67+1.11 -1.52 kpc. The projected star{planet separation is aㅗ = 3.92+1.10 -1.32 au. This means that the planet is located beyond the snow line of the host. The relative lens{source proper motion is μrel ~ 7 mas yr-1, thus the lens and source will be separated from each other within 10 years. After this, it will be possible to measure the flux of the host star with 30 meter class telescopes and to determine its mass.

At q = 1.81 ± 0.20 × 10-5, KMT-2018-BLG-0029Lb has the lowest planet-host mass ratio q of any microlensing planet to date by more than a factor of two. Hence, it is the first planet that probes below the apparent "pile-up" at q = 5-10 ×10-5. The event was observed by Spitzer, yielding a microlens-parallax πE measurement. Combined with a measurement of the Einstein radius θE from finite-source effects during the caustic crossings, these measurements imply masses of the host Mhost = 1.14+0.10-0.12 M⊙ and planet Mplanet = 7.59+0.75-0.69 M⊕, system distance DL = 3.38+0.22-0.26 kpc and projected separation a⊥ = 4.27+0.21-0.23 AU. The blended light, which is substantially brighter than the microlensed source, is plausibly due to the lens and could be observed at high resolution immediately.

The Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) is a wide-eld photometric system installed by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI). Here, we present the overall technical specications of the KMTNet observation system, test observation results, data transfer and image processing procedure, and nally, the KMTNet science programs. The system consists of three 1.6 m wide-eld optical telescopes equipped with mosaic CCD cameras of 18k by 18k pixels. Each telescope provides a 2.0 by 2.0 square degree eld of view. We have nished installing all three telescopes and cameras sequentially at the Cerro-Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile, the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) in South Africa, and the Siding Spring Observatory (SSO) in Australia. This network of telescopes, which is spread over three dierent continents at a similar latitude of about 􀀀30 degrees, enables 24-hour continuous monitoring of targets observable in the Southern Hemisphere. The test observations showed good image quality that meets the seeing requirement of less than 1.0 arcsec in I-band. All of the observation data are transferred to the KMTNet data center at KASI via the international network communication and are processed with the KMTNet data pipeline. The primary scientic goal of the KMTNet is to discover numerous extrasolar planets toward the Galactic bulge by using the gravitational microlensing technique, especially earth-mass planets in the habitable zone. During the non-bulge season, the system is used for wide-eld photometric survey science on supernovae, asteroids, and external galaxies.

In current microlensing planet searches that are being carried out in a survey/follow-up mode, the most important targets for follow-up observations are lensing events with high magnifications resulting from the very close approach of background source stars to the lens. In this paper, we investigate the dependence of the sensitivity to planets on detailed properties of high-magnification events. From this, it is found that the sensitivity does not monotonically increase as the impact parameter between the lens and the source trajectory decreases. Instead, it is roughly the same for events with impact parameters less than a certain threshold value. It is also found that events involving main-sequence source stars are sensitive to planets in a much wider range of separation and mass ratio, than those events involved with giant source stars. Based on these results, we propose observational strategies for maximal planet detections considering the types of telescopes available for follow-up observations.

We investigate the degeneracy in the pattern of central microlensing perturbations of a pair of planetary systems where the planets are located from the primary with projected separations in units of the Einstein radius s and s-1, respectively. From this, we confirm the fact that although alike, the patterns of central perturbations induced by a close (s < 1) planet and a wide (s > 1) planet are not identical and the degree of difference depends on the planet/primary mass ratio and the planet-primary separation. We find that the difference can be greater than 5% for planetary systems with lensing parameters located in the parameter space of (1/1.8 < lsl < 1.8, q > 5 x 10-3), (1/1.3 < lsl < 1/3, q > 1 x 10-3), and (1/1.2 < lsl < 1.2, q > 5 x 10-4), where q represents the planet/primary mass ratio. Although this range occupies a small fraction of the entire parameter space of planetary systems, we predict that the chance of resolving the close/wide degeneracy would not be meager considering that the planet detection efficiency is higher for planets with resonant separations (s ~ 1) and heavier masses. We also find that the differences between the perturbation patterns are basically caused by the effect of the planetary caustic. This explains the tendency of the perturbation difference where (1) the difference increases as the planet/primary mass ratio increases and the separation approaches the Einstein radius, (2) the region of major difference is confined within the region around the line connecting the central and the planetary caustics, and (3) a wide (close) planetary system has a more extended central perturbation region toward the (opposite) direction of the planet.

We propose a diagnostic that can resolve the planet/binary degeneracy of central perturbations in caustic-crossing high-magnification microlensing events. The diagnostic is based on the difference in the morphology of perturbation inside the central caustics induced by a planet and a wide-separation binary companion. We find that the contours of excess exhibit a concentric circular pattern around the caustic center for the binary-lensing case, while the contours are elongated or off-centered for the planetary case. This difference results in the distinctive features of the individual lens populations in the residual of the trough region between the two peaks of the caustic crossings, where the shape of the residual is symmetric for binary lensing while it tends to be asymmetric for planetary lensing. We determine the ranges of the planetary parameters for which the proposed diagnostic can be used. The diagnostic is complementary to previously proposed diagnostics in the sense that it is applicable to caustic-crossing events with small finite-source effect.

Since the first proposal by Paczynski, great efforts to detect Galactic dark matter by detecting light variations of stars located in the Magellanic Clouds and Galactic bulge caused by gravitational microlensing have been and are being carried out and more than 1,000 events have been successfully detected. In this paper, we review the progress in the theoretical and experimental progresses in microlensing. We begin with basics of microlensing and summarize the results obtained from the last 8 year observations along with the implications of the results. We also discuss the usefulness of microlensing in other fields of astronomy such as the stellar atmosphere, Galactic binary systems, and extra-solar planets. We finally discuss the problems of the current experiments and the new types of observations that can overcome these problems.

As an efficient method to detect blending of general gravitational microlensing events, it is proposed to measure the shift of source star image centroid caused by microlensing. The conventional method to detect blending by this method is measuring the difference between the positions of the source star image point spread function measured on the images taken before and during the event (the PSF centroid shift, δθc,PSF). In this paper, we investigate the difference between the centroid positions measured on the reference and the subtracted images obtained by using the difference image analysis method (DIA centroid shift, δθc.DIA), and evaluate its relative usefulness in detecting blending over the conventional method based on δθc,PSF measurements. From this investigation, we find that the DIA centroid shift of an event is always larger than the PSF centroid shift. We also find that while δθc,PSF becomes smaller as the event amplification decreases, δθc.DIA remains constant regardless of the amplification. In addition, while δθc,DIA linearly increases with the increasing value of the blended light fraction, δθc,PSF peaks at a certain value of the blended light fraction and then eventually decreases as the fraction further increases. Therefore, measurements of δθc,DIA instead of δθc,PSF will be an even more efficient method to detect the blending effect of especially of highly blended events, for which the uncertainties in the determined time scales are high, as well as of low amplification events, for which the current method is highly inefficient.