Title：Progenitors and Explosion Mechanisms of Supernovae

Speaker：Xiaofeng Wang (Tsinghua University)

Time：3:00 pm May 23th (Thursday)

Tencent Meeting：42915400486 password: 6360

Location: Lecture Hall, 3rd floor

Abstract：

Supernovae represent the end of stellar evolution for most massive stars and a range of binary systems, and they play important roles in testing theories of stellar evolution, measuring expansion history of our universe, and examing extreme physics involved in stellar explosions. Nevertheless, our knowledge of their progenitors and explosion  physics are still limited. In this talk, I will report the progress in our understanding the above issues in the era of wide-field surveys, with highlights of our efforts and results achieved in recent years. In particular, we report the detection of shock breakout emission from a nearby type II supernova 2023ixf at about 1 hour after its explosion, the unusually rapid evolution on timescales of 1-2 hours, and the implications for final-stage evolution of massive stars.

CV：Dr. Xiaofeng Wang is a professor of physics department at Tsinghua University. He got his bachelor's degree in astrophysics in 1997 and PhD in 2002 from Beijing Normal University. He ever worked as a postdoctoral researcher at NAOC (2002-2004), UC Berkeley (2006-2009) and Texas A&M University (2009-2010), focusing on  studies of supernovae and time-domain astronomy. Since 2010 prof.  Wang joined  Tsinghua University, where he has led  several transient  survey  projects, including Tsinghua-NAOC Transient Survey (TNTS) and  Tsinghua-Ma huateng Telescope for Survey (TMTS).  In 2013 he was selected to "The National Science Fund for  Distinguished Young Scholars";  in 2015, he was awarded  the "Shoushu Huang" prize by the Chinese Astronomical Society; in 2021 he won the Tencent  Xplorer Prize.  Prof. Xiaofeng Wang  has published 186 papers, including  1 in Science, 3 in Nature, and 4 in Nature Astronomy.