Powered by Indico
v3.2.3
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most explosive phenomena in the universe, which are produced by relativistic jets driven by core-collapse of massive stars or by mergers of compact binaries. One of the most crucial mysteries is the nature of the central engine of GRBs. Although it is widely considered that the engine could be a hyper-accreting black hole, a rapidly rotating highly-magnetized neutron star (i.e., a millisecond magnetar) can still be favored by some observational features of GRB afterglows, including plateaus and flares and as well as the extended emission of short GRBs. In the model framework of a magnetar engine, we can further explain some special properties of the supernovae and kilonovae associated with GRBs, e.g., the AT2017gfo emission detected in the famous GW170817/GRB 170817A event. Besides this kilonova observation, this event also offered a special opportunity to probe the angular structure of GRB jets, which is determined by the propagation of the jets through the progenitor material (i.e., the stellar envelope or the merger ejecta). Another important issue of the GRB jets is their dissipation mechanism, which could be dominated by internal shocks or magnetic reconnections. The observations of the high-energy emission during the GRB prompt and afterglow phases could help us to constrain the radiation mechanisms and thus to understand the energy dissipation processes more deeply.
Yun-Wei Yu is a professor of astrophysics at Central China Normal University (CCNU) and the vice dean of the college of physical science and technology. He specializes in physics of neutron stars and energetic explosions of stellar objects such as gamma-ray bursts, supernovae and supernova-like transients, and fast radio bursts. So far he has totally published about 80 peer-reviewed papers. Yun-Wei Yu got his PhD from CCNU in 2009 and then stayed as a teacher. From 2009 to 2011, he worked in the University of Hong Kong as a postdoctoral fellow. In 2011, his doctoral thesis was awarded the National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation. In 2013, he was selected into the New Century Talents Program from the Ministry of Education of China. In 2018, he was awarded the Excellent Youth fund from the National Natural Science Foundation of China.