Professor Lixin Dai, an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at the Faculty of Science and a full member of the Hong Kong Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics (HKIAA) at the University of Hong Kong, has been honoured under the Research Grants Council’s (RGC) Research Fellow Scheme (RFS) for the 2026/27 academic year.
Her pioneering project is titled “Modeling Super-Eddington Accretion Physics from Cosmic Dawn Quasars to Gravitational-Wave Counterparts”. Classical physics dictates a maximum rate at which black holes can consume matter, known as the Eddington limit, beyond which radiation pressure halts the inflow. However, cosmic observations reveal that black holes frequently breach this limit, powering spectacular phenomena—from tidal disruption events and binary black hole mergers in AGN disks to the recently discovered “Little Red Dots” in the early universe.
Professor Dai’s team will forge the first unified framework for super-Eddington accretion. Utilising state-of-the-art General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic simulations and radiative transfer calculations, the project will predict multi-wavelength signatures to directly inform flagship global space observation missions, including the James Webb Space Telescope and the Einstein Probe. The project aims to establish Hong Kong as a major international hub for black hole astrophysics.
Professor Stephanie Ma, Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) (Interim) at HKU, extended her heartfelt congratulations, noting that Professor Dai’s work in frontier black hole astrophysics exemplifies HKU’s commitment to driving high-impact, interdisciplinary innovation. To read about the other HKU scholars honoured this year, please read the full HKU press release here.
For more details on the RGC Senior Research Fellow Scheme and Research Fellow Scheme, please visit the RGC official website.