Research Interests                                                                 

• Astrophysics of Exoplanets: dynamics, formation, protoplanetary disks, star-planet interactions.
• Compact Objects: neutron stars, black holes, white dwarfs, gravitational waves, neutrinos, condensed matter
• Astrophysical (particle and fluid) dynamics in general: celestial mechanics, waves, oscillations, instabilities 

Biographical Sketch                                                                            

      Dong Lai was born in 1968 in Ganzhou (Jiangxi), China. He received a B.S. degree in 1988 from University of Science and Technology of China. He came to the US through the T.D.Lee (CUSPEA) program and received Ph.D. in physics from Cornell University in 1994. After three years of postdoctoral fellowship at Caltech, he joined the Cornell Astronomy faculty in 1997, and eventually became a full Professor. He has held visiting professor positions at Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, KITP, CITA, National and Shanghai Astronomical Observatories and Tsinghua University, etc.

     Lai is a theoretical astrophysicist who has worked on a number of different areas, from compact objects to exoplanets. He has made original contributions on the physical processes that take place in strong magnetic fields of neutron stars , such as the effect of QED on radiative transfer in neutron star atmospheres and x-ray polarization signatures , and the magnetic effect on the property of neutron star surfaces and interiors . His theoretical works have also helped constrain and elucidate the physical mechanisms of supernova kicks .

     Lai has contributed significantly to the understanding of hydrodynamical processes in coalescing neutron star binaries: the first analytic calculation of gravitational wave phase shift due to (Newtonian) static tides and related tidal instability , resonant tides and tidal heating, and magnetic effect. He made the first calculation of the gravitational waveform from young neutron stars undergoing nonlinear bar-mode instability. Since the detection of GWs by LIGO, he has returned to this field and has studied dynamical formation of binary black holes, predicting signatures of spin-orbit misalignments.

     Lai made an original contribution to accretion disks around magnetic stars, showing that magnetic star - disk interaction can give rise to disk warping and precession, with implications for stellar obliquities in planetary systems. He developed the theory of corotational excitation of global oscillations of accretion disks around black holes in an attempt to understand QPOs -- while the theory is beautiful (GR really makes the mode grow), he could not be sure this is "the" explanation of QPOs (alas, BH accretion disk are messy...). Lai has also studied accretion processes around binaries (e.g. binary black holes), dynamical tides in compact binary white dwarfs , heartbeat stars and highly eccentric binaries.

     Since 2010, Lai has devoted a large part of his research on exoplanet dynamics and formation. He has studied mass transfer and magnetic interactions in close-in planet systems , the formation of hot Jupiters and ultra-short period planets, and has explored several mechanisms of producing spin-orbit misalignments. He showed that stellar spin dynamics (often chaotic) driven by migrating planets plays a most important role in determining the stellar obliquities. He has also studied the dynamics of planets and warped disks around binary stars, tidal dissipations and resonances in exoplanetary systems, as well as the influences of external companions on the multi-planet systems. 

Honor and Awards   

• 1984 - 1988 University Fellowship, University of Science & Technology of China 
• 1988 Winner of China-U.S. Physics Examination & Application Program (CUSPEA) 
• 1988 - 1989 Sage Graduate Fellowship, Cornell University 
• 1991 C. Liu Memorial Award for Academic Excellence, Cornell University
• 1994 - 1997 Richard C. Tolman Research Fellowship in Theoretical Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology
• 1998 - 2002 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship
• 2000 Dorothy & Fred Chau Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research Project Supervision, Cornell University
• 2004 Oversea Outstanding Young Scientist, P.R. China
• 2016 - 2017 Simons Fellow in Theoretical Physics, Simons Foundation
• 2017 Distinguished Guest and Lecturer for the 2017 Future Science Forum
• 2018 Distinguished Alumni Lecturer, University of Science and Technology of China
• 2019 - 2020 Miller Visiting Professor, UC Berkeley  

Selected Publications   

• 1.Harding, A. K., Lai, D. 2006, “Physics of Strongly Magnetized Neutron Stars”, Report of Progress of Physics, 69, 2631
• 2.Lai, D., Tsang, D. 2009, ”Corotational Instability of Inertial-Acoustic Modes in Black Hole Accretion Discs and Quasi-Periodic Oscillations”, MNRAS, 393, 979-991
• 3.Lai, D., Foucart, F., Lin, D.N.C. 2011, “Evolution of Spin Direction of Accreting Magnetic Protostars and Spin-Orbit Misalignment in Exoplanetary Systems”, MNRAS, 412, 2790-2798
• 4.Fuller, J., Lai, D. 2012, “Dynamical Tides in Compact White Dwarf Binaries: Tidal Synchronization and Dissipation”, MNRAS, 421, 426-445
• 5.Lai, D. 2012, “DC Circuit Powered by Orbital Motion: Magnetic Interactions in Compact Object Binaries and Exoplanetary Systems”, ApJ, 757, L3
• 6.Storch, N.I., Anderson, K.R., Lai, D. 2014, “Chaotic Dynamics of Stellar Spin in Binaries and the Production of Misaligned Hot Jupiters”, Science, 345, 1317 Wang, C., Lai, D. 2016 “Axion-Photon Propagation in Magnetized Universe”, JCAP, 6, 006
• 7.Xu, Wenrui, Lai, D. 2017, “Resonant Tidal Excitation of Oscillation Modes in Merging Binary Neutron Stars: Inertial-Gravity Mode”, Phys. Rev. D 96, 083005
• 8.Zanazzi, J.J., Lai, D. 2018, “Inclination Evolution of Protoplanetary Disks Around Eccentric Binaries”, MNRAS, 473, 603-615
• 9.Liu, B., Lai, D. 2018, “Black Hole and Neutron Star Binary Mergers in Triple Systems: Merger Fraction and Spin-Orbit Misalignment”, ApJ, 863, 68
• 10.Munoz, D.J., Miranda, R., Lai, D. 2019, “Hydrodynamics of circumbinary accretion: Angular momentum transfer and binary orbital evolution”, ApJ, 871, 84
• 11.Vick, M., Lai, D., Anderson, K.R. 2019, “Chaotic Tides in Migrating Gas Giants: Forming Hot and Transient Warm Jupiters via High-Eccentricity Migration”, MNRAS, 484, 5645-5668