X-ray Astronomy, Compact Objects, Accretion and Evolution of Stellar-mass and Supermassive Black Holes

High-energy Astrophysics Research Areas:

• Nearby Galaxies: population studies of X-ray sources in nearby galaxies

• Active Galactic Nuclei:  theoretical studies of super-edington accretion physics and multi-wavelength observations

• X-ray binaries: accretion physics of X-ray binaries

2015-09--2021-06   California Institute of Technology                        Ph.D., Physics

2011-09--2015-07   University of Science and Technology of China      B.S., Astronomy

2022-09~                Institute of High Energy Physics, CAS         Associate Researcher

2021-07~2022-06    California Institute of Technology               Postdoctoral Research Associate

All Academic Publications with Link (Total Citations > 5000):  ADS Link

Selected Recent Publications：

1. Haberl F., Xu Y., Maitra C., Vasilopoulos G., Zhang W., Yuan W., Jin C., et al., 2025, MNRAS, 542, 583.

2. Xiao, Y. X.; Xu, Y. J. Xu, Y. J.; Ge, M. Y.; Lu, F. J.; Zhang, S. N.; Zhang, S.; Tao, L.; Qu, J. L.; Wang, P. J.; Kong, L. D.; Tuo, Y. L.; You, Y.; Zhao, S. J.; Peng, J. Q.; Du, Y. F.; Zhang, Y. H.; Ye, W. T. ; Pulsed Iron Line Emission from the First Galactic Ultraluminous X-Ray Pulsar Swift J0243.6+6124, ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL, 2024, 965: 18 

3. Yanjun Xu; Fiona A.Harrison; John A.Tomsick; Jeremy Hare; Andrew C.Fabian; Dominic J.Walton ; Evidence for Disk Truncation at Low Accretion States of the Black Hole Binary MAXI J1820+070 Observed by NuSTAR and XMM-Newton, The Astrophysical Journal, 2020, 893: 42

4. Yanjun Xu; Fiona A. Harrison; John A. Tomsick; Dominic J. Walton; Didier Barret; Javier A. Garcia; Jeremy Hare; Michael L. Parker ; Studying the Reflection Spectra of the New Black Hole X-Ray Binary Candidate MAXI J1631−479 Observed by NuSTAR: A Variable Broad Iron Line Profile, The Astrophysical Journal, 2020, 893: 30 

5. Zhang, Wenda; Yuan, Weimin; Ling, Zhixing; Chen, Yong; Rea, Nanda; Rau, Arne; Cai, Zhiming; Cheng, Huaqing; Zelati, Francesco Coti; Dai, Lixin et al. ; Einstein Probe discovery of EP240408a: A peculiar X-ray transient with an intermediate timescale, SCIENCE CHINA-PHYSICS MECHANICS & ASTRONOMY, 2025, 68: 219511 

6. Weimin Yuan; Lixin Dai; Hua Feng; Chichuan Jin; Peter Jonker; Erik Kuulkers; Yuan Liu; Kirpal Nandra; Paul O’Brien; Luigi Piro et al., Science objectives of the Einstein Probe mission, SCIENCE CHINA Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy, 2025, 68: 239501

7. Ruican Ma; Lian Tao; Mariano Méndez; Shuang-Nan Zhang; Yanjun Xu; Liang Zhang; Hexin Liu; Jinlu Qu; Liming Song; Xiaoqin Ren; Shujie Zhao; Yue Huang; Xiang Ma; Qingchang Zhao; Yingchen Xu; Panping Li; Zixu Yang; Wei Yu ; Studies on the soft intermediate state X-ray flare of MAXI J1535–571 during its 2017 outburst, Monthl y Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2024, 528: 3864-3874 

8. Zhao, Qing-Chang; Tao, Lian; Li, Han-Cheng; Zhang, Shuang-Nan; Feng, Hua; Ge, Ming-Yu; Ji, Long; Wang, Ya-Nan; Huang, Yue; Ma, Xiang; Zhang, Liang; Qu, Jin-Lu; Xu, Yan-Jun Xu, Yan-Jun; Zhang, Shu; Yin, Qian-Qing; Shui, Qing-Cang; Ma, Rui-Can; Zhao, Shu-Jie; Li, Pan-Ping; Yang, Zi-Xu; Liu, He-Xin; Yu, Wei ; The First Polarimetric View on Quasiperiodic Oscillations in a Black Hole X-RayBinary, ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL LETTERS, 2024, 961: L42 

9. Jeremy Hare; John A. Tomsick; Douglas J. K. Buisson; Maica Clavel; Poshak Gandhi; Javier A. Garcia; Brian W. Grefenstette; Dominic J. Walton; Yanjun Xu ; NuSTAR Observations of the Transient Galactic Black Hole Binary Candidate Swift J1858.6–0814: A New Sibling of V404 Cyg and V4641 Sgr?, The Astroph ysical Journal, 2020, 890: 57

10. Murray Brightman; Dominic J.Walton; Yanjun Xu; Hannah P.Earnshaw; Fiona A.Harrison; Daniel Stern; Didier Barret ; Spectral Evolution of the Ultraluminous X-Ray Sources M82 X-1 and X-2, The Astroph ysical Journal, 2020, 889: 71 

Scientific Collaborations:

General Coordinator of the eXTP Science Working Group in China [ 2024- ]

Member of the Einstein Probe (EP) Science Topic Panels (STP 1 & 4)  [2023 - ]

Member of the Core Scientific Team of the Insight-HXMT Telescope [2022 - ]

Approved Observation Proposals:

• EP (Cycle-1) - EP/FXT Monitoring and Follow-up Observations of a List of Nearby Galaxies

• EP  (Cycle-1) - EP/FXT Monitoring and Follow-up Observations of a List of Globular Clusters

• EP (Cycle-1) -  EP/WXT Monitoring and FXT Rapid Follow-up Observations of a List of Known Transient X-ray Binaries

• NuSTAR (AO-4) -The Bright Hard State of a Transient Black Hole Binary — Is the Accretion Disk Truncated?

Master and PhD Students:

Kangting Wang (2025 - )

Postdoctoral Researchers:

Zheng Cao (Radloud University PhD; 2025 -)

Hexin Liu (IHEP, CAS PhD; 2023 -)

High School Research Interns:

Boqin Yang, Yuhang Li, Wenjie Yao (Beijing Dongzhimen Middle School, 2025)

Garmire Scholar, France A. Córdova Graduate Student Fund | Caltech [2020]

National Astronomical Observatory Scholarship | Chinese Academy of Sciences [2015]

National Scholarship | Ministry of Education of P.R.China 2020 [2014]