Dr Chang Liu

Abstract:

We report discovering an exoplanet from following up a microlensing event alerted by Gaia. The event Gaia22dkv is toward a disk source rather than the traditional bulge microlensing fields. Our primary analysis yields a Jovian planet with Mp=0.59−0.05+0.15MJ at a projected orbital separation r⊥=1.4−0.3+0.8 au, and the host is a ∼1.1 M ⊙ turnoff star at ∼1.3 kpc. At r′≈14 , the host is far brighter than any previously discovered microlensing planet host, opening up the opportunity to test the microlensing model with radial velocity (RV) observations. RV data can be used to measure the planet’s orbital period and eccentricity, and they also enable searching for inner planets of the microlensing cold Jupiter, as expected from the “inner–outer correlation” inferred from Kepler and RV discoveries. Furthermore, we show that Gaia astrometric microlensing will not only allow precise measurements of its angular Einstein radius θ E but also directly measure the microlens parallax vector and unambiguously break a geometric light-curve degeneracy, leading to the definitive characterization of the lens system.

Abstract:

We present SN 2023zaw—a subluminous (M r = −16.7 mag) and rapidly evolving supernova (t 1/2,r = 4.9 days), with the lowest nickel mass (≈0.002 M ⊙) measured among all stripped-envelope supernovae discovered to date. The photospheric spectra are dominated by broad He i and Ca near-infrared emission lines with velocities of ∼10,000−12,000 km s−1. The late-time spectra show prominent narrow He i emission lines at ∼1000 km s−1, indicative of interaction with He-rich circumstellar material. SN 2023zaw is located in the spiral arm of a star-forming galaxy. We perform radiation-hydrodynamical and analytical modeling of the lightcurve by fitting with a combination of shock-cooling emission and nickel decay. The progenitor has a best-fit envelope mass of ≈0.2 M ☉ and an envelope radius of ≈50 R ⊙. The extremely low nickel mass and low ejecta mass (≈0.5 M ⊙) suggest an ultrastripped SN, which originates from a mass-losing low-mass He-star (zero-age main-sequence mass < 10 M ⊙) in a close binary system. This is a channel to form double neutron star systems, whose merger is detectable with LIGO. SN 2023zaw underscores the existence of a previously undiscovered population of extremely low nickel mass (<0.005 M ☉) stripped-envelope supernovae, which can be explored with deep and high-cadence transient surveys.