李亚光 / Yaguang Li

Beatrice Watson Parrent Fellow
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

I am an astronomer at the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. I obtained my PhD from the University of Sydney in 2023, and I will join the Department of Astronomy at Tsinghua University as an assistant professor in 2027.

I am broadly interested in stellar astrophysics and specialize in asteroseismology, the study of stellar oscillations. Almost every star in the sky pulsates, just like a musical instrument hitting some notes. I study these variabilities to understand the physics of stellar interiors, through precision observations and stellar modeling, using data from space telescopes (Kepler, TESS, Roman, PLATO, Earth 2.0) and ground-based facilities (SONG, Keck/KPF, and VLT/ESPRESSO).

Stars are also wonderful tracers. I work on stellar characterization to study Galactic archaeology, star-planet interaction, and exoplanet characterization.

Research

I work at the interface between observations and theory: I develop techniques to measure stars precisely, then use those measurements to study the physics of stellar interiors.

Publications on ADS: All First-author

Stellar physics · the questions

Binary Interactions

Discovery of stars that should not exist, unless they have undergone mass transfer.

Convection

Prescribing the asteroseismic surface effect and constraining convective mixing in stellar models.

Rotation and Magnetism

Revealing the stellar spin-down relation beyond 4 Gyr.

Mass Loss

Uncovering evidence that stellar mass loss on the red giant branch decreases with metallicity.

Methods and data · the tools

Stellar Parameters

Anchoring asteroseismic scaling relations, decoupling mixed modes, measuring stellar properties, and quantifying their uncertainties.

Space Asteroseismology

Asteroseismology using space missions, such as Kepler and TESS.

EPRV Asteroseismology

Asteroseismology using Keck/KPF, VLT/ESPRESSO, and SONG.

Talks

2026 Asteroseismology of K dwarfs Slides
Aarhus / TASC10
2024 Decoupling mixed modes: stretched frequency recovers pure p modes Slides
Porto / TASC8
2024 A crash course on asteroseismology Slides
Hawaiʻi
2023 Enhancing stellar properties through ensemble modelling techniques Slides
Hawaiʻi / TASC7
2023 An introduction to ADQL Slides
Garching / MIAPbP
2022 Fantastic binaries and where to find them Slides Video
Leuven / TASC6
2022 How well do we know the scaling relations? Slides
Aarhus / MW-Gaia

Code

Paper repositories

Beyond MESA defaults: the impact of structural resolution uncertainty in p-mode asteroseismology Paper Code
Realistic uncertainties for fundamental properties of asteroseismic red giants and the interplay between mixing length, metallicity and ν_max Paper Data
A prescription for the asteroseismic surface correction Paper Code Data
Discovery of post-mass-transfer helium-burning red giants using asteroseismology Paper Code
Testing the intrinsic scatter of the asteroseismic scaling relations with Kepler red giants Paper Code

Software packages

YREC — The Yale Rotating Evolution Code: a pseudo-2D stellar evolution code with rotation, modern microphysics, and starspots. Code Docs
clickelle — Click modes on an echelle diagram, then fit them: an interactive front end for asteroseismic peakbagging. Code
asterofit — Estimate model parameters from evolutionary tracks given observables. Code
maemae — Deconvolution methods in asteroseismology. Code