Compact objects, including white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes, serve as exceptional laboratories for probing fundamental physical processes under extreme conditions in the universe. Binary systems hosting these compact objects represent a crucial pathway for characterizing their properties and advancing our understanding of accretion physics and stellar evolution. While compact object binaries have traditionally been discovered through their X-ray emission, optical observations play an indispensable role in identifying their physical nature, constraining basic system parameters, and investigating their astrophysical environments. In this talk, I will present our recent progresses in three complementary aspects: (1) detailed characterization of individual systems through dynamical modeling and environmental studies; (2) systematic searches for compact object binaries utilizing large-scale stellar surveys; and (3) optical follow-up campaigns for cosmic X-ray transients.
BIO
Jianfeng Wu is a professor in the Department of Astronomy at Xiamen University. His research focuses on multiwavelength studies of compact objects across the mass scale, with particular emphasis on optical and X-ray observations. He has been participating in the science working groups of the Insight/HXMT, the Einstein Probe mission, and the CSST, and serves as the convenor of the SVOM working group on ultraluminous X-ray sources. Prof. Wu earned his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from Tsinghua University and his Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University. He conducted postdoctoral research at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the University of Michigan before joining Xiamen University in 2017. He currently teaches a popular general education course "Black Holes and Gravitational Waves", and serves on the advisory committee of the Center for Aesthetic and General Education at Xiamen University.
Host: Junjie Mao
