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), quasi-periodic eruptions , compact object mergers, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), relativistic jets, accretion disks, supernovae in binaries, and hyper-velocity stars. These projects involve hydrodynamics, radiative transfer, stellar physics, special/general relativity, and plasma physics.

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
• How can we measure BH spins using general relativistic effects?

Teaching:

Radiation (2022 Fall, 2023 Fall, 2025 Spring)

Stars (2024 Fall, 2025 Fall)

Open-Access Book on Zenodo:

Astrophysical Radiation (comments welcome!)

CV: download pdf

Publication Lists: ADS   Google Scholar

Predictions

This table shows a list of testable predictions from my research (updated occassionally).

Useful Notes: GWinspiral   Polytrope   Reduced2body   RandomWalk   ShockJumpCond   MakePubList  

Extra: readarXiv   more about me