Institute for Advanced Study Informal Astrophysics Seminar

For a decade, high-magnification microlensing events have been theoretically anticipated as an important way to discover extrasolar planets. However, only in the last several years have they been firmly established as a crucial venue of microlensing planetary discoveries. Almost a dozen planets (including multiple-planet systems) have been found with this method. One major challenge is to uniquely and promptly model these events. I will talk about our efforts to overcome this computational problem. I will also discuss what we have learned from these discoveries, specifically, their implications for microlensing as a planetary detection technique and broader scientific questions.