Bing Zhang

Last updated
Bing Zhang
Born
Shanxi Province, China
Alma mater Peking University
Known for Gamma ray bursts
Fast Radio Bursts
AwardsFellow, American Physical Society
Scientific career
Fields Astrophysics
Institutions University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Bing Zhang is a Chinese astrophysicist and professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is best known for his research in gamma-ray bursts, fast radio bursts, and other high-energy astrophysical phenomena. He is the author of the book The Physics of Gamma-Ray Bursts. [1]

Contents

Life

Bing Zhang was born in 1968 in Shanxi, China. He received his B.S. (1991), M.S. (1994), and Ph.D. (1997) from Peking University. After postdoctoral fellowships at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and Pennsylvania State University, he joined the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 2004 where he is holding a tenured faculty position.

Career

Zhang is a theoretical astrophysicist closely working with observers. According to the Astrophysics Data System, he has published more than 800 entries, including more than 500 refereed papers as of 2023, with a citation h-index greater than 100. He is known for his theoretical work on several subjects in the field of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs): e.g., a canonical afterglow lightcurve and interpretation, [2] a prompt emission model invoking internal collision-induced magnetic reconnection, [3] a magnetar central engine, [4] a quasi-universal structured jet, [5] a physical classification scheme, [6] among others. His work has been found useful in interpreting the rapidly growing body of GRB data, and several of his predictions have been verified by observations. Together with Peter Mészáros and Pawan Kumar, Zhang wrote two influential review articles in the GRB field. [7] [8] He also wrote a comprehensive, 579 pages book on the physics of GRBs, [1] which serves as an advanced textbook for graduate students and as a reference for researchers in the field of GRBs.

Zhang has participated in a number of observational campaigns in collaboration with observers. Some major discoveries to which Zhang made significant contributions include: discovery of the first short GRB afterglow, [9] discovery of X-ray flares following GRBs, [10] discovery of the first jetted tidal disruption event, [11] discovery of an X-ray transient marking the birth of a magnetar, [12] and making a connection between fast radio bursts and a Galactic magnetar. [13]

Zhang is an advocate of using Breakthrough Starshot techniques to study "relativistic astronomy". [14] [15] He also suggested that Communicative Extraterrestrial intelligence (CETI) may use fast radio burst-like signals to communicate, and that one can use all-sky radio monitors to place quantitative constraints on the signal emission rate of CETI. [16]

Positions

Zhang is an elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (2014). He served as Associate Dean for Research of the College of Sciences in 2018-2021, and is holding the position of Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, as well as Founding Director of the Nevada Center for Astrophysics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Awards and accomplishments

Personal life

Zhang is married to Chaohui Huang with two children, Rachel C. Zhang and Raymond M. Zhang.

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">GRB 970228</span> Gamma-ray burst detected on 28 Feb 1997, the first for which an afterglow was observed

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Gamma-ray burst emission mechanisms are theories that explain how the energy from a gamma-ray burst progenitor is turned into radiation. These mechanisms are a major topic of research as of 2007. Neither the light curves nor the early-time spectra of GRBs show resemblance to the radiation emitted by any familiar physical process.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">GRB 970508</span> Gamma-ray burst detected on May 8, 1997

GRB 970508 was a gamma-ray burst (GRB) detected on May 8, 1997, at 21:42 UTC; it is historically important as the second GRB with a detected afterglow at other wavelengths, the first to have a direct redshift measurement of the afterglow, and the first to be detected at radio wavelengths.

The history of gamma-ray began with the serendipitous detection of a gamma-ray burst (GRB) on July 2, 1967, by the U.S. Vela satellites. After these satellites detected fifteen other GRBs, Ray Klebesadel of the Los Alamos National Laboratory published the first paper on the subject, Observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts of Cosmic Origin. As more and more research was done on these mysterious events, hundreds of models were developed in an attempt to explain their origins.

GRB 051221A was a gamma ray burst (GRB) that was detected by NASA's Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission on December 21, 2005. A gamma-ray burst is a highly luminous flash of gamma rays, the most energetic form of electromagnetic radiation. The coordinates of the burst were α=21h 54m 50.7s, δ=16° 53′ 31.9″, and it lasted about 1.4 seconds. The same satellite discovered X-ray emission from the same object, and the GMOS Instrument on the Gemini Observatory discovered an afterglow in the visible spectrum. This was observed for the next ten days, allowing a redshift of Z = 0.5464 to be determined for the host galaxy.

GRB 031203 was a gamma-ray burst (GRB) detected on December 3, 2003. A gamma-ray burst is a highly luminous flash associated with an explosion in a distant galaxy and producing gamma rays, the most energetic form of electromagnetic radiation, and often followed by a longer-lived "afterglow" emitted at longer wavelengths.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GRB 101225A</span> Gamma-ray burst event of December 25, 2010

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">GRB 190114C</span> Notable high energy gamma ray burst explosion

GRB 190114C was an extreme gamma-ray burst explosion from a galaxy 4.5 billion light years away (z=0.4245; magnitude=15.60est) near the Fornax constellation, that was initially detected in January 2019. The afterglow light emitted soon after the burst was found to be tera-electron volt radiation from inverse Compton emission, identified for the first time. According to the astronomers, "We observed a huge range of frequencies in the electromagnetic radiation afterglow of GRB 190114C. It is the most extensive to date for a gamma-ray burst." Also, according to other astronomers, "light detected from the object had the highest energy ever observed for a GRB: 1 Tera electron volt (TeV) -- about one trillion times as much energy per photon as visible light"; another source stated, "the brightest light ever seen from Earth [to date] ... [the] biggest explosion in the Universe since the Big Bang".

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">GRB 221009A</span> Gamma-ray burst

GRB 221009A also known as Swift J1913.1+1946 was an unusually bright and long-lasting gamma-ray burst (GRB) jointly discovered by the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope on October 9, 2022. The gamma-ray burst lasted for more than ten hours following detection and for several hours was bright enough in visible frequencies to be observable by amateur astronomers. The event yielded one of the closest gamma-ray bursts to Earth and is among the most energetic and luminous known to science. A burst as energetic and as near to Earth as 221009A is thought to be a once-in-10,000-year event.

References

  1. 1 2 Zhang, B., "The Physics of Gamma-Ray Bursts", 2018, Cambridge University Press
  2. 1 2 Zhang, B. et al. "Physical Processes Shaping Gamma-Ray Burst X-Ray Afterglow Light Curves: Theoretical Implications from the Swift X-Ray Telescope Observations", The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 642, pp. 354-370 (2006)
  3. ↑ Zhang, B. & Yan, H. "The Internal-collision-induced Magnetic Reconnection and Turbulence (ICMART) Model of Gamma-ray Bursts", The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 726, id. 90, 23pp. (2011)
  4. ↑ Zhang, B. & Mészáros, P. "Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglow with Continuous Energy Injection: Signature of a Highly Magnetized Millisecond", The Astrophysical Journal Letters, vol. 552, pp. L35-L38 (2001)
  5. ↑ Zhang, B. & Mészáros, P. "Gamma-Ray Burst Beaming: A Universal Configuration with a Standard Energy Reservoir?", The Astrophysical Journal Letters, vol. 571, pp. 876-879 (2002)
  6. ↑ Zhang, B. et al. "Discerning the Physical Origins of Cosmological Gamma-ray Bursts Based on Multiple Observational Criteria: The Cases of z = 6.7 GRB 080913, z = 8.2 GRB 090423, and Some Short/Hard GRBs", The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 703, pp. 1696-1724 (2009)
  7. ↑ Zhang, B. & Mészáros, P. "Gamma-Ray Bursts: progress, problems & prospects", International Journal of Modern Physics A, vol. 19, pp. 2385-2472 (2004).
  8. ↑ Kumar, P. & Zhang, B. "The physics of gamma-ray bursts & relativistic jets", Physics Reports, Volume 561, p. 1-109 (2015).
  9. ↑ Gehrels, N. et al. "A short γ-ray burst apparently associated with an elliptical galaxy at redshift z = 0.225", Nature, Volume 437, Issue 7060, pp. 851-854 (2005).
  10. ↑ Burrows, D. N. et al. "Bright X-ray Flares in Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows", Science, Volume 309, Issue 5742, pp. 1833-1835 (2005).
  11. ↑ Burrows, D. N. et al. "Relativistic jet activity from the tidal disruption of a star by a massive black hole", Nature, Volume 476, Issue 7361, pp. 421-424 (2011).
  12. ↑ Xue, Y. Q. et al. "A magnetar-powered X-ray transient as the aftermath of a binary neutron-star merger", Nature, Volume 568, Issue 7751, p.198-201 (2019).
  13. ↑ Lin, L. et al. "No pulsed radio emission during a bursting phase of a Galactic magnetar", Nature, Volume 587, Issue 7832, p.63-65 (2020).
  14. ↑ Zhang, B. & Li, K. "Relativistic Astronomy", The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 854, Issue 2, article id. 123, 7 pp. (2018).
  15. ↑ Zhang, Bing. "Observing the universe with a camera traveling near the speed of light". The Conversation.
  16. ↑ Zhang, B. "A quantitative assessment of communicating extra-terrestrial intelligent civilizations in the galaxy and the case of FRB-like signals", Frontiers of Physics, Volume 15, Issue 5, article id.54502 (2020).
  17. ↑ "Science's Breakthrough of the Year 2020: shots of hope in a pandemic-ravaged world". vis.sciencemag.org.
  18. ↑ "Viruses, microscopy and fast radio bursts: 10 remarkable discoveries from 2020". Nature. 588 (7839): 596–598. December 8, 2020. Bibcode:2020Natur.588..596.. doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-03514-8 . PMID   33318683.
  19. ↑ "APS Fellow Archive". www.aps.org.
  20. ↑ "Top 20 Authors - Gamma-ray Bursts - ScienceWatch.com". archive.sciencewatch.com.
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