We present the analysis of KMT-2016-BLG-0212, a low flux-variation (Iflux−var ∼ 20 mag) microlensing event, which is in a high-cadence (Γ = 4hr −1) field of the three-telescope Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) survey. The event shows a short anomaly that is incompletely covered due to the brief visibility intervals that characterize the early microlensing season when the anomaly occurred. We show that the data are consistent with two classes of solutions, characterized respectively by low-mass brown-dwarf (q = 0.037) and sub-Neptune (q < 10−4) companions. Future high-resolution imaging should easily distinguish between these solutions.

We report the characterization of a massive (mp = 3:91:4Mjup) microlensing planet (OGLE- 2015-BLG-0954Lb) orbiting an M dwarf host (M = 0:33  0:12M) at a distance toward the Galactic bulge of 0:6+0:4 􀀀0:2 kpc, which is extremely nearby by microlensing standards. The planet-host projected separation is a?  1:2AU. The characterization was made possible by the wide-eld (4 deg2) high cadence (􀀀 = 6 hr􀀀1) monitoring of the Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet), which had two of its three telescopes in commissioning operations at the time of the planetary anomaly. The source crossing time t = 16 min is among the shortest ever published. The high-cadence, wide-eld observations that are the hallmark of KMTNet are the only way to routinely capture such short crossings. High-cadence resolution of short caustic crossings will preferentially lead to mass and distance measurements for the lens. This is because the short crossing time typically implies a nearby lens, which enables the measurement of additional eects (bright lens and/or microlens parallax). When combined with the measured crossing time, these eects can yield planet/host masses and distance.

Polarbear is a ground-based experiment located in the Atacama desert of northern Chile. The experiment is designed to measure the Cosmic Microwave Background B-mode polarization at several arcminute resolution. The CMB B-mode polarization on degree angular scales is a unique signature of primordial gravitational waves from cosmic in ation and B-mode signal on sub-degree scales is induced by the gravitational lensing from large-scale structure. Science observations began in early 2012 with an array of 1,274 polarization sensitive antenna-couple Transition Edge Sensor (TES) bolometers at 150 GHz. We published the first CMB-only measurement of the B-mode polarization on sub-degree scales induced by gravitational lensing in December 2013 followed by the first measurement of the B-mode power spectrum on those scales in March 2014. In this proceedings, we review the physics of CMB B-modes and then describe the Polarbear experiment, observations, and recent results.

Most of the stars in the Galaxy are in binary systems. Binaries should be possible as the hosting stars of planets. Searching for planetary companions to binaries, especially evolved close binary stars, can provide insight into the formation and the ultimate fate of circumbinary planets and shed light on the late evolution of binary stars. In order to do this, we have chosen some post common envelope binaries including sdB-type eclipsing binaries and detached WD+dM eclipsing binaries as our targets and monitored them for several years. In this paper, we will present some of our new observations and results for three targets, NSVS 07826147, NSVS14256825 and RR Cae.