• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.215-218
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• 2014

One-dimensional (1-D) microlens parallaxes can be combined with heliocentric lens-source relative proper motion measurements to derive the lens mass and distance, as suggested by Ghosh et al. (2004). Here I present the first mathematical anlysis of this procedure, which I show can be represented as a quadratic equation. Hence, it is formally subject to a two-fold degeneracy. I show that this degeneracy can be broken in many cases using the relatively crude 2-D parallax information that is often available for microlensing events. I also develop an explicit formula for the region of parameter space where it is more difficult to break this degeneracy. Although no mass/distance measurements have yet been made using this technique, it is likely to become quite common over the next decade.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.93-107
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• 2016

Augmenting the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) microlensing campaigns with intensive observations from a ground-based network of wide-field survey telescopes would have several major advantages. First, it would enable full two-dimensional (2-D) vector microlens parallax measurements for a substantial fraction of low-mass lenses as well as planetary and binary events that show caustic crossing features. For a significant fraction of the free-floating planet (FFP) events and all caustic-crossing planetary/binary events, these 2-D parallax measurements directly lead to complete solutions (mass, distance, transverse velocity) of the lens object (or lens system). For even more events, the complementary ground-based observations will yield 1-D parallax measurements. Together with the 1-D parallaxes from WFIRST alone, they can probe the entire mass range M ≳ M_⊕. For luminous lenses, such 1-D parallax measurements can be promoted to complete solutions (mass, distance, transverse velocity) by high-resolution imaging. This would provide crucial information not only about the hosts of planets and other lenses, but also enable a much more precise Galactic model. Other benefits of such a survey include improved understanding of binaries (particularly with low mass primaries), and sensitivity to distant ice-giant and gas-giant companions of WFIRST lenses that cannot be detected by WFIRST itself due to its restricted observing windows. Existing ground-based microlensing surveys can be employed if WFIRST is pointed at lower-extinction fields than is currently envisaged. This would come at some cost to the event rate. Therefore the benefits of improved characterization of lenses must be weighed against these costs.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.15-19
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• 2000

The lens mass determined from the photometrically obtained Einstein time scale suffers from large uncertainty due to the lens parameter degeneracy. The uncertainty can be substantially reduced if the mass is determined from the lens proper motion obtained from astrometric measurements of the source image centroid shifts, ${\delta}{\theta}_c$, by using high precision interferometers from space-based platform such as the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM), and ground-based interferometers soon available on several 8-10m class telescopes. However, for the complete resolution of the lens parameter degeneracy it is required to determine the lens parallax by measuring the parallax-induced deviations in the centroid shifts trajectory, ${\Delta}{\delta}{\theta}_c$ aloe. In this paper, we investigate the detectabilities of ${\delta}{\theta}_c$ and ${\Delta}{\delta}{\theta}_c$ by determining the distributions of the maximum centroid shifts, $f({\delta}{\theta}_{c,max})$, and the average maximum deviations, $(<{\Delta}{\delta}_{c,max}>)$, for different types of Galactic microlensing events caused by various masses. From this investigation, we find that as long as source stars are bright enough for astrometric observations it is expected that $f({\delta}{\theta}_c)$ for most events caused by lenses with masses greater than 0.1 $M_\bigodot$ regardless of the event types can be easily detected from observations by using not only the SIM (with a detection threshold but also the ${\delta}{\theta}_{th}\;\~3{\mu}as)$ but also the ground-based interferometers $(with\;{\delta}{\theta}_{th}\;\~3{\mu}as)$. However, from ground-based observations, it will be difficult to detect ${\Delta}{\delta}{\theta}_c$ for most Galactic bulge self-lensing events, and the detection will be restricted only for small fractions of disk-bulge and halo-LMC events for which the deviations are relatively large. From observations by using the SIM, on the other hand, detecting ${\Delta}{\delta}{\theta}_c$ will be possible for majority of disk and halo events and for a substantial fraction of bulge self-lensing events. For the complete resolution of the lens parameter degeneracy, therefore, SIM observations will be essential.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.93-104
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• 2015

WFIRST microlensing observations will return high-precision parallaxes, σ(π) . 0.3 µas, for the roughly 1 million stars with H < 14 in its 2.8 deg² field toward the Galactic bulge. Combined with its 40,000 epochs of high precision photometry (∼ 0.7 mmag at H_vega = 14 and ∼ 0.1 mmag at H = 8), this will yield a wealth of asteroseismic data of giant stars, primarily in the Galactic bulge but includindvvvvvg a substantial fraction of disk stars at all Galactocentric radii interior to the Sun. For brighter stars, the astrometric data will yield an external check on the radii derived from the two asteroseismic parameters, the large-frequency separation <∆ν_nl> and the frequency of maximum oscillation power ν_max, while for the fainter ones, it will enable a mass measurement from the single measurable asteroseismic parameter ν_max. Simulations based on Kepler data indicate that WFIRST will be capable of detecting oscillations in stars from slightly less luminous than the red clump to the tip of the red giant branch, yielding roughly 1 million detections.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.197-206
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• 2018

We present the analysis of KMT-2016-BLG-0212, a low flux-variation ($I_{flux-var}{\sim}20mag$) microlensing event, which is in a high-cadence (${\Gamma}=4hr^{-1}$) 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.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.161-168
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• 2020

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 find 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 a⊥ = 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.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.73-81
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• 2016

We report the characterization of a massive (m_p = 3.9±1.4M_jup) 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-field (4 deg²) high cadence (Γ = 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-field 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 effects (bright lens and/or microlens parallax). When combined with the measured crossing time, these effects can yield planet/host masses and distance.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.121-131
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• 2019

I investigate the origin of arc degeneracies in satellite microlens parallax ${\pi}_E$ measurements with only late time data, e.g., t > $t_0+t_E$ as seen from the satellite. I show that these are due to partial overlap of a series of osculating, exactly circular, degeneracies in the ${\pi}_E$ plane, each from a single measurement. In events with somewhat earlier data, these long arcs break up into two arclets, or (with even earlier data) two points, because these earlier measurements give rise to intersecting rather than osculating circles. The two arclets (or points) then constitute one pair of degeneracies in the well-known four-fold degeneracy of space-based microlens parallax. Using this framework of intersecting circles, I show that next-generation microlens satellite experiments could yield good ${\pi}_E$ determinations with only about five measurements per event, i.e., about 30 observations per day to monitor 1500 events per year. This could plausibly be done with a small (hence cheap, in the spirit of Gould & Yee 2012) satellite telescope, e.g., 20 cm.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.37-44
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• 2016

The Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) is a wide-field photometric system installed by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI). Here, we present the overall technical specifications of the KMTNet observation system, test observation results, data transfer and image processing procedure, and finally, the KMTNet science programs. The system consists of three 1.6 m wide-field optical telescopes equipped with mosaic CCD cameras of 18k by 18k pixels. Each telescope provides a 2.0 by 2.0 square degree field of view. We have finished 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 different 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 scientific 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-field photometric survey science on supernovae, asteroids, and external galaxies.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.53.3-54
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• 2021

We present optical follow-up observation results of three binary black hole merger (BBH) events, GW190408 181802, GW190412, and GW190503 185404, which were detected by the Advanced Ligo and Virgo gravitational wave (GW) detectors. Electromagnetic (EM) counterparts are generally not expected for BBH merger events, however, some theoretical models suggest that EM counterparts of BBH can possibly arise in special environments. To identify EM counterparts of the three BBH merger events, we observed high-credibility regions of the sky with telescopes of the Gravitational-wave EM Counterpart Korean Observatory (GECKO), including the Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet). Our observation started as soon as 100 minutes after the GW event alert and covered roughly 29 - 63 deg2 for each event with a depth of 22.5 mag in R-band within hours of observation. No plausible EM counterparts were found for these events. Our result gives a great promise for the GECKO facilities to find EM counterparts within few hours from GW detection in future GW observation runs.