arXiv subjects

Shude Mao

Publications and source records attributed to Shude Mao.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Two Isolated Microlensing Events Near the Upper Shore of Einstein Desert

The Einstein desert is a deficit in the angular Einstein-radius ($θ_{\rm E}$) distribution of isolated objects over the range $9 {\rm μas} < θ_{\rm E}<26 {\rm μas}$. Although this interval contained no events when the desert was first identified, several subsequent detections have fallen within it, raising questions about its detailed structure and requiring a larger detection sample. In this paper, we report the observations and analyses of two microlensing events possibly caused by isolated giant planets or brown dwarfs whose $ θ_{\rm E}$ lie near the upper shore of the desert. MOA-2021-BLG-145 has $ θ_{\rm E} = 23.1\pm2.0 ~{\rm μas}$, placing it just inside the upper boundary, and KMT-2026-BLG-0357 has $ θ_{\rm E} = 36.5\pm 3.7~{\rm μas}$, placing it above the desert. We also compare the $ θ_{\rm E}$ distributions of isolated objects and bound planetary events. The bound population shows no corresponding deficit over the same range, suggesting that the Einstein desert may be associated with the formation or subsequent evolution of the isolated population. Furthermore, some FFPs may lie above the upper shore of the Einstein desert, indicating that a more complete understanding of the FFP population requires direct lens-mass measurements.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2026

Kinematic Map of the Galactic Bulge Using HST Proper Motions

Constraining the Galactic bulge's non-axisymmetric dynamics requires proper motions in deep fields across many sightlines, yet crowding and extinction limit such measurements. Using multi-epoch observations of 27 fields in the southern Galactic bulge (-6$^\circ$ < l < 4$^\circ$, -5$^\circ$ < b < -1$^\circ$) from the ultraviolet-visible (UVIS) channel of Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) with time baselines of 3 to 13 years, and combining them with the absolute proper motion reference frame provided by Gaia Data Release 3 (DR3), we measure absolute proper motions for ~ 400,000 stars. Colour-magnitude diagrams are used to separate bulge stars from foreground disc stars, identify red clump stars and correct for interstellar extinction and reddening. Statistical analysis shows that the mean proper motion in Galactic latitude is consistent with that of the central supermassive black hole Sgr A*, while the mean proper motion in Galactic longitude is affected by disc stars but agrees with Sgr A* after extrapolation to the Galactic plane. Proper motion dispersions increase towards the Galactic centre and are asymmetric across Galactic longitude, with a steeper gradient for l < 0$^\circ$, revealing the bulge's non-axisymmetric bar structure. The velocity distribution shows clear anisotropy ($σ_l$/$σ_b$ = 1.131 $\pm$ 0.005). The normalised covariance is negative in the l > 0$^\circ$ region (~ -0.085) and close to zero in the l < 0$^\circ$ region. The proper motion distributions are non-Gaussian in both Galactic longitude and latitude, mainly due to contamination by foreground disc stars.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2026

Dissecting the 3D chemo-dynamical structures of NGC~1381: A galaxy hosting an ancient slow bar with an accretion-related bulge and thick disc

We applied the barred population-orbit superposition method developed in our 2025 papers to construct 3D chemo-dynamical models for the barred S0 galaxy NGC~1381 in the Fornax cluster. Based on the stellar orbits in the models, we decomposed NGC~1381 into six components: (1) a dynamically warm nuclear disc with $f_{\rm nucl}\sim5\%$; (2) a rigidly rotating, BP/X-shaped bar with $f_{\rm bar}\sim30\%$; (3) a dynamically hot, spheroidal bulge with $f_{\rm bulge}\sim17\%$; (4) a dynamically cold thin disc with $f_{\rm thin}\sim28\%$; (5) a vertically extended thick disc with $f_{\rm thick}\sim16\%$; and (6) a dynamically hot, spatially diffuse stellar halo with $f_{\rm halo}\sim5\%$. The nuclear disc, bar, and thin disc are metal-rich ($[Z/\rm H]\gtrsim0$), $α$-poor ($\rm[Mg/Fe]\lesssim0.2$), and old ($\sim13\rm\,Gyr$), corresponding to in situ formation in the early Universe. The bulge, thick disc, and stellar halo are metal-poor ($[Z/\rm H]\lesssim0$), $α$-rich ($\rm[Mg/Fe]\gtrsim0.2$), and younger than or comparable in age to the in situ components, suggesting ex situ formation via minor mergers. Further analysis of stellar population gradients reveals that the thick disc and stellar halo, with their flat metallicity and [Mg/Fe] gradients, are likely dominated by a similar ex situ population. In contrast, the bulge exhibits a negative metallicity gradient ($\nabla[Z/\rm H]_{bulge}<0$), which might originate from either predominantly ex situ stars or a mixture of in situ and ex situ stars; its ex situ fraction cannot be quantified with the current data. Our modelling also reveals a slow bar ($\mathcal{R}=2.40_{-0.27}^{+0.54}$), with a bar pattern speed of $\rmΩ_p=34_{-7}^{+4}\,km\,s^{-1}\,kpc^{-1}$, a bar length of $R_{\rm bar}=2.24_{-0.22}^{+0.43}\rm\,kpc$, and a corotation radius of $R_{\rm CR}=5.38_{-0.28}^{+1.59}\rm\,kpc$, consistent with its ancient formation time.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2026

OGLE-2016-BLG-0523: A Low-mass Brown Dwarf or super-Jupiter in a $>100$ au Orbit

To search for very wide-orbit binary-lens events, we cross-match microlensing events detected by OGLE-IV and KMTNet between 2011 and 2024. After removing contaminants from variable stars, we identify OGLE-2016-BLG-0523 as a microlensing event showing two short-lived bumps in its light curve, with the two separated by 8.36 yr. We investigate three scenarios to explain the two bumps, including a binary-lens single-source (2L1S), a single-lens binary-source (1L2S), and two unrelated single-lens single-source events (2$\times$1L1S). The 1L2S interpretation is excluded due to its poorer fit to the data, while the 2$\times$1L1S scenario is disfavored by the low event rate, unphysical total source flux, and unphysical color for one of the two putative sources. For the surviving 2L1S interpretation, the Einstein timescales of the two bumps are $8.343 \pm 0.076$ days and $3.231 \pm 0.047$ days, respectively, implying a binary mass ratio of $q = 0.15$. A Bayesian analysis indicates that the primary lens is most likely a low-mass M dwarf, while the companion is probably a low-mass brown dwarf or super-Jupiter. The inferred projected separation is about 450 au, making the companion the widest low-mass object discovered via microlensing to date. Our discovery highlights both the promise and challenges of identifying very wide, low-mass companions through microlensing. Although upcoming facilities such as Roman and Earth 2.0 space telescopes will improve sensitivity to such events, overcoming degeneracies and distinguishing them from variable phenomena will remain essential for building a robust statistical sample.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2026

An Intermediate-orbit Brown Dwarf Confirmed with Astrometry+Radial Velocity Joint Analysis, and the Eccentricity Distribution of Brown Dwarfs Across Different Locations

Intermediate-orbit ($\sim 1$ AU) brown dwarfs with absolute mass measurements are essential for understanding the evolution of substellar objects. Although such systems remain rare, their number is now being enlarged thanks to astrometry. Here, we present the absolute mass measurements for HD 203771B, a massive brown dwarf orbiting a K dwarf ($M_\ast=0.79\pm0.08\ M_\odot$) with a period of 1140 days on an eccentric ($e\approx0.5$) and inclined ($i\approx 130^{\circ}$) orbit. Through joint analysis of (1) radial velocities and Gaia two-body solution, as well as (2) radial velocities, Hipparcos Intermediate Astrometric Data and two-epoch Gaia astrometry, we obtain true companion masses of $74.20^{+3.46}_{-3.64} M_{\mathrm{J}}$ and $69.03^{+4.99}_{-4.95} M_{\mathrm{J}}$, respectively, agreeing with each other within $1σ$. Taking a sample of 159 brown dwarfs with absolute mass measurements from different detection techniques, we investigate their eccentricity distributions across different semi-major axis ranges by fitting a Beta distribution. We find that the peak of eccentricity distribution tends to gradually shift toward lower values from wide orbits ($a>20$ AU) to intermediate ($1<a<20$ AU) and inner ($0.1<a<1$ AU) regions. Such trend is plausibly due to disk friction during orbital evolution. Together with obliquity studies showing that brown dwarfs are mostly aligned, our result suggests that brown dwarfs may migrate inward through quiescent coplanar disk-driven processes.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2026

From Stars to Waves: Stochastic Inference of Microlensed Gravitational Waves

When strongly lensed gravitational waves pass through the stellar field of a lensing galaxy, they acquire additional phase and amplitude modulations from gravitational microlensing by stars and stellar remnants along the line of sight. These microlensed waveforms depend on the masses and positions of thousands or more of the most relevant stars required for numerical convergence of the wave-optics diffraction integral, so that their deterministic reconstruction from the data is computationally prohibitive. We formulate the detection and parameter estimation of such events as a stochastic inference problem and propose a solution with the implementation of normalizing flows. As a proof of principle, we use the inferred surrogate microlensing parameters to identify microlensing signatures and show that 10.2% of microlensed events can be detected at $\ge 3σ$ significance with third-generation gravitational-wave detector networks for source redshifts $z_s \le 2$. The correlation between the surrogate parameters and the density of the underlying stellar field further connects microlensing detection to the properties of the lensing galaxy. This approach opens the door to probing microlensing effects and the properties of the underlying stellar fields. Beyond microlensed gravitational waves, a similar construction may also be applied to other intrinsically stochastic inference problems, such as detecting post-merger gravitational waves from binary neutron star coalescence and signals from core-collapse supernovae.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2026

How significant is the lensing interpretation of GW231123?

GW231123 is one of the most unusual gravitational-wave (GW) events, with exceptionally large inferred masses and near-extremal spins, offering an opportunity to test whether propagation effects contribute to these properties. We therefore examine whether the data support wave-optics microlensing embedded in a strong-lensing galaxy, whose detection becomes increasingly likely as observations accumulate, whether this interpretation can explain these properties, and how significant the preference remains under detector noise and waveform systematics. We compare six hypotheses: unlensed, isolated point mass, and embedded point-mass (EPM) and binary-lens (EB) effective models in Type-I (minimum) and Type-II (saddle) macro images. The EB Type-I model is most favored. For the most accurate waveform model NRSur7dq4, it gives $\log_{10}B^{\rm EB-I}_{\rm U}=2.60$, versus $0.89$ for Type II, indicating sensitivity to macro-image geometry. Within Type I, however, the binary improves over the point mass by only $\log_{10}B^{\rm EB-I}_{\rm EPM-I}=0.16$ and $Δ\ln\mathcal{L}_{\max}=0.56$, providing no clear evidence for structure beyond a single effective perturber. Moreover, under embedded lensing, waveform-template discrepancies and inferred masses and spins are reduced. However, real O4a backgrounds from numerical-relativity injections show that the apparent lensing evidence is sensitive to waveform systematics and realistic detector noise: although the commonly used waveform IMRPhenomXPHM gives the largest Bayes factor, $\log_{10}B^{\rm EB-I}_{\rm U}=4.52$, it is less exceptional relative to its own background, with a false-alarm probability of $6.5$--$8\%$, whereas NRSur7dq4 gives only $2$--$3\%$. Thus, waveform systematics can amplify apparent lensing evidence, but GW231123 remains an intriguing lensing candidate.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2026

Enabling Metallicity Measurements of M-dwarf Microlensing Lenses out to the Galactic Bulge

We demonstrate that metallicity becomes identifiable for M-dwarf microlensing lenses out to bulge distances when multi-band lens photometry is combined with the angular Einstein radius, thereby defining the photometric--microlensing metallicity method. The cool atmospheres of M dwarfs contain abundant molecules, whose broad absorption bands make their positions in an optical--NIR color--absolute magnitude diagram sensitive to metallicity. The angular Einstein radius provides the mass--distance constraint needed to infer the lens absolute magnitude, while the intrinsic M-dwarf locus and reddening vector are non-parallel in color--color space, allowing the lens extinction and intrinsic color to be inferred simultaneously from its multi-band photometry, thereby recovering the lens intrinsic position in the metallicity-sensitive color--absolute magnitude diagram. The method requires three-band lens photometry spanning roughly the R, Z, and K bands, making it particularly well suited to Roman through its high-resolution F062, F087, and F213 imaging. With the planned Roman Galactic Bulge Time-Domain Survey (GBTDS) observations plus an additional $\sim$8 hr of F062 imaging per field ($\sim$40 hr in total) roughly a decade after Roman launch, host metallicities could be measured for $\sim$150 planetary systems under the GBTDS yield forecast, with a typical $1σ$ precision of $\sim$0.25 dex from our mock-recovery analysis. Applied homogeneously to GBTDS microlensing events with and without detected planets, the method would enable the first measurement of the occurrence--metallicity relation for cold low-mass planets beyond the snow line, constrain the low-metallicity cutoff for their formation, and extend occurrence--metallicity studies into the inner Galaxy.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2026

Mode Switching in Two Blue Large Amplitude Pulsators observed by OGLE, KMTNet and DREAMS

Blue large-amplitude pulsators (BLAPs) are rare, hot, short-period pulsating stars whose rapid oscillations provide a unique probe of stellar interiors and atmospheres. In this paper, we study two short-period BLAPs in the Galactic bulge, OGLE-BLAP-142 ($P \approx 6.6$ min) and OGLE-BLAP-148 ($P \approx 7.5$ min), by combining light curves from the OGLE, KMTNet, and DREAMS surveys, spanning 17 years with cadences ranging from minutes to hours to days. We perform Generalized Lomb-Scargle periodogram analyses of their light curves and identify, for each BLAP, three closely spaced pulsation modes separated by $\sim 1\%$. The dominant mode can switch within timescales of order a year, accompanied by a likely blueward color shift ($\sim 0.1$--$0.2$ mag). The yearly period excursions of the resolved mode families imply apparent $|\dot{P}/P|$ values of order $10^{-6}$--$10^{-4}\,\mathrm{yr^{-1}}$, large enough to mimic or exceed smooth evolutionary period changes. One mode family in OGLE-BLAP-148 shows a coherent decade-long drift at the $\sim10^{-5}\,\mathrm{yr^{-1}}$ level, but its failure to extrapolate to the earliest and latest epochs suggests a transient mode-family drift rather than secular evolution. Such close-spaced multiple pulsations and mode switching may be common among BLAPs with periods shorter than 10 min, and their physical origin remains unclear.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2026

Gravitational lensing of gravitational waves by galaxy clusters

Strongly lensed gravitational waves (GWs) are commonly searched for using population priors, including time-delay and magnification-ratio distributions, to suppress false alarms. Current LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA (LVK) searches mainly adopt priors calibrated with galaxy-scale lenses; however, these may penalize the longer time delays produced by galaxy clusters, which could contribute 10%--20% of lensed events. Cluster member galaxies may also perturb the macro-lens potential and alter image magnifications. We investigate the time-delay and magnification-ratio distributions of binary black hole GWs lensed by galaxy clusters, together with microlensing systematics. In the full lensed sample, the median time delay is about 76 days for cluster lenses, compared with 6.9 days for galaxy lenses. After imposing an SNR threshold of $ρ>8$ at LVK O4 sensitivity, the medians are 15.4 and 0.24 days. The detected cluster sample retains a long-delay tail, with 9.1% of image pairs delayed by more than 365 days and 3.3% by more than 1000 days, so galaxy-based time-delay priors can suppress cluster-lensed pairs. By contrast, although cluster member galaxies broaden the magnification-ratio distribution of the full cluster sample, the detected cluster- and galaxy-lensing samples are very similar at O4 sensitivity, suggesting little bias in candidate selection. Cluster lenses also generally produce weak microlensing distortions: only about 0.8% of single-image mismatches exceed ${\cal M}=0.03$, while 4.8% exceed the parameter-estimation threshold $1.35/ρ^2$. Thus, microlensing is subdominant for most cluster-lensed events, mainly because images often form far from the brightest cluster galaxy, where the stellar density is low and dominated by intracluster light, although nearby satellites can locally enhance it. These results motivate a dedicated cluster-lensing pipeline for GW lensing searches.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2026

KMT-2026-BLG-0083L: A Two-Jovian-Planet System Orbiting an M Dwarf Discovered by Microlensing

We present the analysis of the microlensing event KMT-2026-BLG-0083, which was independently detected by the KMTNet, OGLE, and PRIME surveys and also monitored by the DREAMS survey. The combined data provide dense coverage of two distinct short-duration anomalies in the light curve that cannot be reproduced by a standard binary-lens model. Independent analyses of the two anomalies indicate that each is produced by a planetary companion to the lens, motivating a triple-lens interpretation. The modeling yields two pairs of degenerate solutions arising from the well-known inner--outer degeneracy, with each pair exhibiting two local solutions depending on whether the source passes above or below the distant planetary companion. The preferred model indicates two giant planets with mass ratios $q_2=(5.25\pm 0.08)\times 10^{-3}$ and $q_3=(3.04\pm 0.24)\times10^{-3}$ orbiting a common host. Bayesian analysis indicates that the host is an M-dwarf star with a mass of $0.48^{+0.36}_{-0.28}~M_\odot$, hosting two giant planets with masses of $2.65^{+1.96}_{-1.55}~M_{\rm J}$ and $1.54^{+1.14}_{-0.90}~M_{\rm J}$. The projected planet--host separations are $10.6^{+1.7}_{-2.2}$~au and $1.7^{+0.3}_{-0.3}$~au, placing the inner planet near the host's snow line and the outer planet at a substantially larger separation. Thus, KMT-2026-BLG-0083L becomes the seventh confirmed multiple-planet system discovered through gravitational microlensing, providing another example of a cold giant planetary system orbiting a subsolar-mass star.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2026

Binary-lens Microlensing Degeneracy: Impact on Planetary Sensitivity and Mass-ratio Function

Gravitational microlensing is a unique method for discovering cold planets across a broad mass range. Reliable statistics of the microlensing planets require accurate sensitivity estimates. However, the impact of the degeneracies in binary-lens single-source (2L1S) models that affect many actual planet detections is often omitted in sensitivity estimates, leading to potential self-inconsistency of the statistics studies. In this work, we evaluate the effect of the 2L1S degeneracies on planetary sensitivity by simulating a series of typical microlensing events and comprehensively replicating a realistic planet detection pipeline, including the anomaly identification, global 2L1S model search, and degenerate model comparison. We find that for a pure-survey statistical sample, the 2L1S degeneracies reduce the overall planetary sensitivity by $5\sim10\%$, with the effect increasing at higher planet-host mass ratios. This bias leads to an underestimation of planet occurrence rates and a flattening of the inferred mass-ratio function slope. This effect will be critical for upcoming space-based microlensing surveys like the Roman or Earth 2.0 missions, which are expected to discover $\mathcal{O}(10^3)$ planets. We also discuss the computational challenges and propose potential approaches for future applications.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2026

Systematic KMTNet Planetary Anomaly Search. XIII. Complete Sample of 2021 Prime Field Planets

The Systematic KMTNet Planetary Anomaly Search series was conducted using the KMTNet data archived from $2016$ to $2019$. From this first phase of the series, we reported a total of $50$ planetary systems hidden in the data archive, which represent about $35\%$ of the total microlensing planets discovered from $2016$ to $2019$, demonstrating that this semi-machine-based search is a crucial channel for building a complete microlensing planet sample. We continue this series for $2021$ and beyond to expand the microlensing planet sample. In this work for the $2021$ KMTNet high-cadence fields (Prime fields), we find seven hidden planetary systems and three planet candidates. These new planets represent about $33\%$ of the total microlensing planets discovered within the Prime fields observed during the $2021$ bulge season. While the by-eye search is the primary channel for detecting microlensing planets (i.e., two-thirds of microlensing planet discoveries), this work clearly shows that a systematic search series is still necessary for constructing a complete microlensing planet sample. Such a sample is essential for conducting unbiased statistical studies of planet demographics in our Galaxy. Datasets for all the events used for analyses in this work are publicly available: doi:10.5281/zenodo.21472225.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2026

A Wandering 35,000-Solar-Mass Black Hole Fed by a Gravitational Wake

Intermediate-mass black holes are widely considered to be the seeds of supermassive black holes, a substantial population of which is expected to remain displaced from galactic nuclei owing to hierarchical galaxy assembly and inefficient dynamical friction. While several fueling channels can sustain central black holes, those pathways are largely inaccessible to off-nuclear black holes, leaving their fuel supply uncertain. As these wandering black holes move through the interstellar medium of their host galaxies, theory predicts that they can capture gas from the dense wake produced by gravitational focusing. However, direct observational evidence for this process has remained elusive. Here we report evidence for a wandering intermediate-mass black hole of 35,000 solar mass accreting through such a gravitational wake. Its black-hole nature is supported by broad-line emission, a compact continuum counterpart, long-term optical variability, and a power-law-like spectral energy distribution. Multi-epoch spectroscopy reveals three distinct gas components: a blueshifted, low-density upstream flow; a redshifted, dense downstream wake; and optically thick absorbers well within the capture radius that drive rapid changing-look variability in the broad-line emission. This discovery establishes a previously unobserved channel for the growth of wandering intermediate-mass black holes.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2026

A Minute-Cadence Deep Bulge Survey: First Data Release of DREAMS

The DECam Rogue Earths and Mars Survey (DREAMS), a NOIRLab survey program, has been conducting a three-year survey covering a 5 deg$^2$ area in the Galactic bulge (roughly spanning $-1.2^\circ \lesssim \ell \lesssim +2.1^\circ$ and $-2.8^\circ \lesssim b \lesssim -0.6^\circ$) since 2025 June. Its primary science goal is to detect low-mass free-floating planets through microlensing, while its minute-level cadence ($20-40\,\mathrm{hr}^{-1}$ in $z$ band and $4-8\,\mathrm{hr}^{-1}$ in $r$ band) also enables the detection and characterization of rapid phenomena on timescales of minutes to hours such as stellar flares and pulsating stars. The survey reaches a single-exposure depth of $z_{\rm AB}\sim 22$ mag, about two magnitudes deeper than previous bulge time-domain surveys. We present the data reduction and calibration of the DREAMS observations obtained in 2025 and introduce the first DREAMS data release (DR1). DR1 includes 1,856 $z$-band observations and 325 $r$-band observations for 59,372,789 stars. The DREAMS DR1 catalog contains about twice as many stars as previous catalog covering the same 5 deg$^2$ area. We present DREAMS light curves for a known blue large-amplitude pulsator (BLAP) and a known low-amplitude transiting system to demonstrate the survey's capabilities. We also perform a pilot search for short-duration variables over about 0.4% of the DR1 sample, identifying one new short microlensing event, two stellar flares, and 24 new short variables. This suggests that DREAMS DR1 may contain hundreds of stellar flares and thousands of previously unknown short variables.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2026

Stellar Multiplicity of M Dwarfs with Short-period Giant Planets, and the Characterization of TOI-5628Ab

Binary stars are ubiquitous, yet it remains unclear how wide-orbit stellar companions influence the formation of hot Jupiters, particularly around M dwarfs. Here, we first report the discovery of TOI-5628Ab, a giant planet transiting a mid-type M dwarf ($M_\ast=0.36\pm0.02\ M_\odot$) every 4.34 days, accompanied by an associated white dwarf TOI-5628B ($M_{\rm WD}=0.59\pm0.16\ M_\odot$) at a projected distance of about 2,500 AU. Using TESS, ground-based photometry and SPIRou RVs, we constrain the planet radius to $0.74\pm0.04\ R_J$ and mass to $0.09\pm0.04\ M_J$, with a $3σ$ upper limit of $0.22\ M_J$. Building on this system, we further conduct a homogeneous systematic search for co-moving stellar companions with projected semi-major axis between 100 and 10,000 AU around all M dwarfs with confirmed giant planets with periods smaller than 10 days and radii larger than 0.7 $R_J$, as well as a group of field M stars with stellar properties similar to the planet sample, based on the stellar kinematics from Gaia DR3. We measure a stellar multiplicity of $34.2\pm9.5\%$ for M dwarfs hosting short-period giant planets, which is substantially higher than the fraction of $5.3\pm3.7\%$ for the field M stars by approximately a factor of 6. Our results suggest that wide-orbit stellar companions tend to promote the formation of short-period giant planets around M stars with masses $0.21 \leq M_\ast\leq 0.64\ M_\odot$, and high-eccentricity migration may play an important role in producing such systems.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2026

KMT-2025-BLG-2093: Free-Floating Planet Candidate Near the Shore of the Einstein Desert

We analyze KMT-2025-BLG-2093, with angular Einstein radius $θ_{\rm E}=13.1\pm 2.8\,μ{\rm as}$, which makes it the second isolated microlens that lies in the ``Einstein Desert'' ($9\,μ{\rm as}<θ_{\rm E}<25\,μ{\rm as}$) between free-floating planets (FFPs) on one side and brown dwarfs and stars on the other. We discuss how its characteristics may give clues to future exploration of FFPs, especially in the era of satellite missions that have a major FFP focus, including Earth 2.0 and Roman.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2026

Measuring Asteroid Rotation Periods Using the KMTNet Bulge Survey Data

Since 2015, the Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) has conducted high-cadence, near-continuous observations of the Galactic bulge for nearly nine months each year from three sites in Chile, South Africa, and Australia, and its wide field of view provides a unique opportunity to extract asteroid lightcurves from archival survey data. In this work, we performed photometric measurements of bright asteroids ($V< 20$~mag) identified within a one-square-degree field during the 2018 KMTNet bulge season. We derived reliable rotation periods for 96 asteroids, including 84 objects without previously published lightcurves. The reliable spin-rates of the asteroids in our sample are broadly consistent with those reported in the Asteroid Lightcurve Database. This archival mining approach can be readily extended to a much larger KMTNet footprint, and the existing $\sim12$~deg$^2$ high-cadence KMTNet dataset has the potential to yield reliable rotation periods (U $\geq 2+$) for more than 5,500 asteroids, substantially expanding the current database of asteroid rotational properties.

astro-ph.EP↗