Wenbin Lu

Assistant Professor
Department of Astronomy, Theoretical Astrophysics Center
University of California Berkeley
Email: wenbinlu.at.berkeley.edu

I am a theoretical astrophysicist. My research goal is to understand the underlying physics in various energetic transient phenomena. Observationally, these events produce the brightest sources which suddenly appear on the sky and quickly disappear afterwards --- leaving us wondering what happened in nature. With my collaborators, I have worked on fast radio bursts (FRBs), tidal disruption events (TDEs), compact object mergers, gamma-ray bursts, relativistic jets, accretion disks, pre-supernova mass loss, and hyper-velocity stars. These projects involve plasma physics, special/general relativity, hydrodynamics, radiative transfer, and stellar evolution.

My past worldline:

22-now, Assistant Professor (UC Berkeley)
21-22, Lyman Spitzer Fellow (Princeton University)
18-21, Burke Fellow (Caltech)
2018, PhD in Astronomy (University of Texas Austin)
2013, Bachelor in Physics (Peking University)

I enjoy interactions with other researchers on various topics in astrophysics. Many of my projects were initiated during the discussions with postdocs and students. Feel free to contact me if interested.

Research

More descriptions here. Things I am currently thinking about:

What plasma processes generate FRBs?
What (radiation-hydrodynamic) processes shape the optical/X-ray lightcurves of TDEs?
Formation history of merging BH-BH, BH-NS, and NS-NS binaries (BH: black hole; NS: neutron star)
Relativistic jets from BH accretion disks
How can we measure BH spins using general relativistic effects?