People

Professor Jane Lixin Dai is a theoretical and computational high energy astrophysicist, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Hong Kong. She received BSc in Physics and Mathematics from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. She obtained PhD degree in Physics from Stanford University, after which she conducted postdoctoral studies in the US and Chile. Prior to moving back to Hong Kong, she was an Assistant Professor at the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, where she currently holds the Sophie and Tycho Brahe Visiting Professorship. She has received the Block Award from the Aspen Center of Physics in 2018 and the award of the Excellent Young Scientist Fund from the National Natural Science Foundation of China in 2021. 

Professor Dai is a theoretical and computational astrophysicist who focuses on studying energetic, relativistic and transient phenomena around astrophysical black holes. She works on a broad range of topics including tidal disruption events, black hole accretion disks and jets, active galactic nuclei and their feedback, X-ray binaries, gravitational waves and their electromagnetic counterparts, etc. She is a member of several observational missions, and co-chairs the Science Topic Panel 1 (Tidal Disruption Events & Active Galactic Nuclei) of the Einstein Probe mission.

1. “The Effects of Gas Angular Momentum on the Formation of Magnetically Arrested Disks and the Launching of Powerful Jets”, Kwan T. M., Dai L., Tchekhovskoy A., The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 946, L42 (2023)

2. “Dynamical Unification of Tidal Disruption Events”, Thomsen L. L., Kwan T. M., Dai L., Wu S. C., Roth N., Ramirez-Ruiz E., The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 937, L28 (2022)

3. “An asymmetric electron-scattering photosphere around optical tidal disruption events”, Leloudas G., Bulla M., Cikota A., Dai L., Thomsen L. L., Maund J. R., Charalampopoulos P., et al., Nature Astronomy, 6, 119 (2022)

4. “Revisiting the Rates and Demographics of Tidal Disruption Events: Effects of the Disk Formation Efficiency", Wong T. H. T., Pfister H., Dai L., The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 927, L19 (2022)

5. “The Physics of Accretion Discs, Winds and Jets in Tidal Disruption Events” (review paper), Dai L., Lodato G., Cheng R., Space Science Reviews, 217, 12 (2021)

6. “X-Ray Fluorescence from Super-Eddington Accreting Black Holes", Thomsen L. L., Dai L., Ramirez-Ruiz E., Kara E., Reynolds C., The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 884, L21 (2019)

7. “A Unified Model for Tidal Disruption Events”, Dai L., McKinney J. C., Roth N., Ramirez-Ruiz E., Miller M. C., The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 859, L20 (2018)

8. "Energetic constraints on electromagnetic signals from double black hole mergers”, Dai L., McKinney J. C., Miller M. C., Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 470, L92 (2017)
9. "Relativistic reverberation in the accretion flow of a tidal disruption event”, Kara E., Miller J. M., Reynolds C., Dai L., Nature, 535, 388 (2016)

1. NSFC/RGC Joint Research Scheme 2023/24 (PI): Investigating the Properties and Impacts of the Wind Launched From Black Hole Super-Eddington Accretion Flow (HKU Project Code: N_HKU782/23)
2. National Natural Science Foundation of China Excellent Young Scientists Fund (Hong Kong and Macau) 2021 (PI): Astrophysics & Astronomy (HKU Project Code: 12122309)
3. General Research Fund (GRF) 2023/24 (PI): Modeling Ultraluminous X-Ray Sources with Black Hole Super-Eddington Accretion (HKU Project Code: 17305523)
4. General Research Fund (GRF) 2022/23 (PI): Probing Intermediate-Mass Black Holes With the Tidal Disruption of Main-Sequence Stars: Rates and Observational Signatures (HKU Project Code: 17314822)
5. General Research Fund (GRF) 2021 (PI): A Study on the Rates And Demographics of Tidal Disruption Events With a New Understanding of Debris Circularization (HKU Project Code: 17304821)
6. General Research Fund (GRF) 2020 (PI): Modeling X-Ray Relativistic Reflection And Reverberation From Super-Eddington Accreting Black Holes (HKU Project Code: 17305920)
7. Early Career Scheme (ECS) 2019 (PI): Understanding the Black Hole Accretion & Emission Physics in Tidal Disruption Events (HKU Project Code: 27305119)