Dr. Xian-Yu Wang has been honored as an Outstanding Graduate Student by the National Astronomical Observatory of China (NAOC) and Beijing Municipal Commission of Education. This prestigious title is awarded to the top 5% of graduates from NAOC in recognition of their outstanding academic performance and potential in their respective fields.
Since his graduation in January, Xian-Yu has held a postdoctoral research position in our department. His research primarily focuses on using photometric and spectroscopic observations to characterize giant exoplanets.
Xian-Yu has made significant contributions to the Transiting Exoplanet Monitoring Project. He has been instrumental in the analysis of over 300 light curves, employing the Transit Timing Variation (TTV) method. No substantial Transit Timing Variation (TTV) signals were identified, a result that aligns with the high-eccentricity migration theory.
His research also extends to Stellar obliquity, specifically, the angle between a star's rotation and the orbits of its planets. Through studying the WASP-148 system, where WASP-148b aligns with its host star's spin axis, he suggests that to account for the high rate of spin-orbit misalignments in both compact multi-planet and isolated-hot-Jupiter systems orbiting high-mass and hot stars, spin-orbit misalignments may be caused by distant giant planet perturbers, which are most common around these stellar types.
Moreover, Xian-Yu has delved into the dynamics of multi-planet systems through studying mutual inclination, as demonstrated in the WASP-148 system. The data points to a mutual inclination of around 26.5 degrees in WASP-148, underscoring its delicate stability and potential transition phase. This work supports a unified theory of exoplanet formation that connects compact multi-planet and isolated-Jupiter systems.
Xian-Yu’s personal website: wangxianyu.com
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