Dong Lai

Professor of Astronomy
Ph.D. 1994 (Cornell University)

Campus Address:
618 Space Sciences Building
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853

Phone: 607-255-4936

Homepage: http://astro.cornell.edu/~dong/research.html

Specialty Areas: Theoretical Astrophysics

Research Projects: Astrophysics of neutron stars and black holes, pulsars and magnetars, Astrophysical fluid dynamics, Extrasolar Planets, Accretion processes in various astrophysical environments (X-ray binaries, proto-planetary disks, supermassive black holes), Gravitational Waves

Biography: Dong Lai joined the Astronomy faculty in the Fall of 1997 after completing a postdoctoral position at Caltech and Ph.D. at Cornell. His research lies in theoretical high energy and relativistic astrophysics, including compact objects (neutron stars and black holes), supernovae, accretion disks, gravitational waves, neutrino astrophysics, hydrodynamics, MHD, and condensed matter in astrophysics. Some current research projects include:
1. Matter and radiative processes in superstrong magnetic fields;
2. Accretion disks in X-ray binaries, protostars and AGNs;
3. Formation of neutron stars and black holes;
4. Astrophysical sources of gravitational radiation.

Selected Publications: -P. Arras and D. Lai 1999, "Neutrino-Nucleon Interactions in Magnetized Neutron-Star Matter: The Effect of Parity Violation'', Physical Review, D60, 043001(1-28).
-D. Lai 1999, "Magnetically Driven Warping, Precession and Resonances in Accretion Disks'', 524, 1030-1047.
-D. Lai and P. Goldreich 2000, "Growth of Perturbation in Gravitational Collapse and Accretion'', Astrophysical Journal, 535, 402-411.
-D. Lai, D.F. Chernoff, and J.M. Cordes 2001, "Pulsar Jets: Implications for Neutron Star Kicks and Initial Spins'', Astrophysical Journal, 549, 1111-1118.
-D. Lai 2001, "Matter in Strong Magnetic Fields'', Review of Modern Physics, 73, 629-661 (astro- ph/0009333).
-D. Lai 2001, "Neutron Star Kicks and Asymmetric Supernovae'', in Physics of Neutron Star Interiors (Lecture Notes in Physics), ed. D. Blaschke, N.K. Glendenning, and A. Sedrakian (Springer 2001) (astro-ph/0012049).
-W.C.G. Ho and D. Lai 2003, "Atmospheres and Spectra of Strongly Magnetized Neutron Stars: Effect of Vacuum Polarization'', Monthly Notices of Royal Astronomical Society, 338, 233-252 (astro-ph/0201380).