We investigate the possibility of exoplanet detection orbiting source stars in microlensing events through WFIRST observations. We perform a Monto Carlo simulation on the detection rate of exoplanets via microlensing, assuming that each source star has at least one exoplanet. The exoplanet can reflect part of the light from the parent star or emit internal thermal radiation. In this new detection channel, we use microlensing as an amplifier to magnify the reflection light from the planet. In the literature, this mode of detecting exoplanets has been investigated much less than the usual mode in which the exoplanets are considered as one companion in binary lens events. Assuming 72 days of observation per season with the cadence of 15 minutes, we find the probability of rocky planet detection with this method to be virtually zero. However, there is non-zero probability, for the detection of Jovian planets. We estimate the detection rates of the exoplanets by this method, using WFIRST observation to be 0.012% in single lens events and 0.9% in the binary lens events.

The potential existence of two separate classes of Long-duration Gamma-Ray Bursts (LGRBs) with and without radio afterglow emission, corresponding to radio-bright/loud and radio-dark/quiet populations, has been recently argued and favored in the GRB literature. The radio-quiet LGRBs have been found to have, on average, lower total isotropic gamma-ray emissions (Eiso) and shorter intrinsic prompt gamma-ray durations (e.g., T90z). In addition, a redshift −T90z anti-correlation has been discovered among the radio-loud LGRBs, which is reportedly missing in the radio-quiet class. Here we discuss the significance of the differences between the energetics and temporal properties of the two proposed classes of radio-loud and radio-quiet LGRBs. We show that much of the proposed evidence in support of the two distinct radio populations of LGRBs can be explained away in terms of selection effects and sample incompleteness. Our arguments are based on the recent discovery of the relatively-strong highly-significant positive correlation between the total isotropic emission (Eiso) and the intrinsic prompt duration (T90z) that is present in both populations of short-hard and long-soft GRBs, predicted, quantified, and reported for the first time by Shahmoradi (2013) and Shahmoradi & Nemiroff (2015).

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The knowledge of the redshifts of Short-duration Gamma-Ray Bursts (SGRBs) is essential for constraining their cosmic rates and thereby the rates of related astrophysical phenomena, particularly Gravitational Wave Radiation (GWR) events. Many of the events detected by gamma-ray observatories (e.g., BATSE, Fermi, and Swift) lack experimentally measured redshifts. To remedy this, we present and discuss a generic data-driven probabilistic modeling framework to infer the unknown redshifts of SGRBs in the BATSE catalog. We further explain how the proposed probabilistic modeling technique can be applied to newer catalogs of SGRBs and other astronomical surveys to infer the missing data in the catalogs.