About Me

I am currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at CITA and Perimeter Institute. I am fond of discovering fundamental physical laws from the vast observation of various astrophysical objects. My research areas are high energy astrophysics, plasma astrophysics and cosmology. My research topics cover a broad range of physical scales: from the smallest fundamental particles like electrons and ultralight axions, to neutron stars, black holes and galaxies, and to the largest scale structure of the universe.

Interests
  • High Energy Astrophysics
  • Cosmology
  • Plasma Astrophysics
  • Compact Objects
  • Dark Matter
Education

  • PhD in Physics, 2019

    Columbia University, USA

  • MSc in Theoretical Physics, 2013

    Perimeter Institute, Canada

  • BSc in Physics and Mathematics, 2012

    The University of Hong Kong, China

Experience

 
 
 
 
 
Postdoctoral Fellow
CITA/PI
Sep 2019 – Present Toronto
 
 
 
 
 
Graduate Research Assistant
Columbia University
Sep 2013 – Aug 2019 New York

Recent Publications

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Don't cross the streams: caustics from fuzzy dark matter
Neal Dalal, Jo Bovy, Lam Hui, Xinyu Li
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Oscillations and random walk of the soliton core in a fuzzy dark matter halo
Xinyu Li, Tomer D. Yavetz, Lam Hui
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Consequences of Energetic Magnetar-like Outbursts of Nearby Neutron Stars: $^{14}$C Events and the Cosmic Electron Spectrum
F.~Y. Wang, Xinyu Li, D.~O. Chernyshov, C.~Y. Hui, G.~Q. Zhang, K.~S. Cheng
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ENZO: An Adaptive Mesh Refinement Code for Astrophysics (Version 2.6)
Corey Brummel-Smith, Greg Bryan, Iryna Butsky, Lauren Corlies, Andrew Emerick, John Forbes, Yusuke Fujimoto, Nathan Goldbaum, Philipp Grete, Cameron Hummels, Ji-hoon Kim, Daegene Koh, Miao Li, Yuan Li, Xinyu Li, Brian OShea, Molly Peeples, John Regan, Munier Salem, Wolfram Schmidt, Christine Simpson, Britton Smith, Jason Tumlinson, Matthew Turk, John Wise, Tom Abel, James Bordner, Renyue Cen, David Collins, Brian Crosby, Philipp Edelmann, Oliver Hahn, Robert Harkness, Elizabeth Harper-Clark, Shuo Kong, Alexei Kritsuk, Michael Kuhlen, James Larrue, Eve Lee, Greg Meece, Michael Norman, Jeffrey Oishi, Pascal Paschos, Carolyn Peruta, Alex Razoumov, Daniel Reynolds, Devin Silvia, Samuel Skillman, Stephen Skory, Geoffrey So, Elizabeth Tasker, Rick Wagner, Peng Wang, Hao Xu, Fen Zhao
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Dissipation of Alfvén Waves in Relativistic Magnetospheres of Magnetars
Xinyu Li, Jonathan Zrake, Andrei M. Beloborodov
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Recent & Upcoming Talks

Cosmology with Fuzzy Dark Matter
The standard ΛCDM model is successful in describing the large scale structure of the universe but has difficulties on small scales. As an alternative, the Fuzzy Dark Matter (FDM) model proposes that dark matter be composed of an ultralight scalar field with mass 10^-22 to 10^-21 eV.
Jan 1, 0001 12:00 AM
Slides
Magnetodynamics Inside and Outside Magnetars
Magnetars have magnetic field up to 10^15 G. The ultra-strong magnetic field has profound implications for the mechanical, thermal and radiative evolution of magnetars. In this talk, I will discuss the conversion of magnetic energy to radiations inside and outside magnetars.
Jan 1, 0001 12:00 AM
Slides
Neutrino Fast Flavor Conversions in Neutron-star Post-Merger Accretion Disks
A compact accretion disk may be formed in the merger of two neutron stars or of a neutron star and a stellar-mass black hole. Outflows from such accretion disks have been identified as a major site of rapid neutron-capture (r-process) nucleosynthesis and as the source of `red' kilonova emission following the first observed neutron-star merger GW170817.
Jan 1, 0001 12:00 AM
Slides

Recent Posts

Eliminating Pressure for Incompressible MHD
In the formulation of Elsasser’s variables $\mathbf{U} = \mathbf{v}+\mathbf{b}$ and $\mathbf{W} = \mathbf{v}-\mathbf{b}$, \begin{eqnarray} &&\partial_t \mathbf{U} = -(\mathbf{W}\cdot\nabla)\mathbf{U}-\nabla p,\ &&\partial_t \mathbf{W} = -(\mathbf{U}\cdot\nabla)\mathbf{W}-\nabla p,\ &&\nabla\cdot\mathbf{U} = \nabla\cdot\mathbf{W} = 0. \end{eqnarray}
Last updated on Aug 31, 2021 1 min read
Magnetic Fields in Relativistic MHD
In relativistic MHD, the magnetic field 4-vector $b_{\mu}$ and electric field $e_\mu$ in the fluid frame is defined through the 4-vector $u^{\mu}$ and EM 2-form $F_{\mu\nu}$. \(\begin{eqnarray} b^\mu &=& u_{\nu}*F^{\mu\nu}\\ e^\mu &=& u_{\nu}F^{\mu\nu} \end{eqnarray}\) where $*$ means the Hodge-dual of the 2-form.
Last updated on Aug 31, 2021 1 min read
Notes on Running FDM Simulation in ENZO
Running FDM simulations The FDM simulations in ENZO can be run through ProblemType 30 for cosmological simulations and ProblemType 191 for non-cosmological FDM-only simulations. The key parameters for running FDM simulations are QuantumPressure which should be set to 1 to enable the evolution of Schrodinger-Poisson equation and FDMMass which sets the value of FDM particle mass in unit of $10^{-22}$ eV.
Last updated on Aug 31, 2021 2 min read

Contact

  • xli@cita.utoronto.ca
  • 60 St George Street, Toronto, true M5R 2M8
  • 13th floor of the McLennan Physical Laboratories