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We present the analysis of the microlensing event OGLE-2015-BLG-0845, which was affected by both the microlensing parallax and xallarap effects. The former was detected via the simultaneous observations from the ground and Spitzer , and the latter was caused by the orbital motion of the source star in a relatively close binary. The combination of these two effects led to a mass measurement of the lens object, revealing a low-mass (⁠|$0.14 \pm 0.05 \, \mathrm{ M}_{\odot }$|⁠) M dwarf at the bulge distance (⁠|$7.6 \pm 1.0$| kpc). The source binary consists of a late F-type subgiant and a K-type dwarf of |$\sim 1.2$| and |$\sim 0.9 \mathrm{ M}_{\odot }$|⁠ , respectively, and the orbital period is |$70 \pm 10$| d. OGLE-2015-BLG-0845 is the first single-lens event in which the lens mass is measured via the binarity of the source. Given the abundance of binary systems as potential microlensing sources, the xallarap effect may not be a rare phenomenon. Our work thus highlights the application of the xallarap effect in the mass determination of microlenses, and the same method can be used to identify isolated dark lenses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are different methods for finding exoplanets such as radial spectral shifts, astrometrical measurements, transits, timing etc. Gravitational microlensing (including pixel-lensing) is among the most promising techniques with the potentiality of detecting Earth-like planets at distances about a few astronomical units from their host star or near the so-called snow line with a temperature in the range 0–100 ° C on a solid surface of an exoplanet. We emphasize the importance of polarization measurements which can help to resolve degeneracies in theoretical models. In particular, the polarization angle could give additional information about the relative position of the lens with respect to the source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]