Ken Shen
Specialty areas
White Dwarf Physics in Binary Systems.
Biography
I’m an assistant staff researcher in the UC Berkeley astronomy department where I study the astrophysics of white dwarfs in interacting binary systems, with a focus on thermonuclear phenomena. I received my PhD in September 2010 in the Department of Physics at UC Santa Barbara where I worked with Lars Bildsten at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, and from 2011-2014, I was a postdoctoral Einstein fellow at UC Berkeley and LBNL.
Publications
First- and second-authored publications:
“Sub-Chandrasekhar-Mass White Dwarf Detonations Revisited”
“The Evolution of the Type Ia Supernova Luminosity Function”
“Secular Dimming of KIC 8462852 Following its Consumption of a Planet”
“Wait for It: Post-Supernova Winds Driven by Delayed Radioactive Decays”
Shen, K. J. 2015, ApJ, 805, L6
Shen, K. J., & Moore, K. 2014, ApJ, 797, 46
Shen, K. J., & Bildsten, L. 2014, ApJ, 785, 61
Shen, K. J., Guillochon, J., & Foley, R. J. 2013, ApJ, 770, L35
Schwab, J., Shen, K. J., et al. 2012, MNRAS, 427, 190
Shen, K. J., Bildsten, L., Kasen, D., & Quataert, E. 2012, ApJ, 748, 35
Shen, K. J., Kasen, D., Weinberg, N. N., Bildsten, L., & Scannapieco, E. 2010, ApJ, 715, 767“Helium White Dwarfs in Cataclysmic Variables”
Shen, K. J., Idan, I., & Bildsten, L. 2009, ApJ, 705, 693
“Unstable Helium Shell Burning on Accreting White Dwarfs”
Shen, K. J., & Bildsten, L. 2009, ApJ, 699, 1365
“The Effect of Composition on Nova Ignitions”
Shen, K. J., & Bildsten, L. 2009, ApJ, 692, 324
“Faint Thermonuclear Supernovae from AM Canum Venaticorum Binaries”
Bildsten, L., Shen, K. J., Weinberg, N. N., & Nelemans, G. 2007, ApJ, 662, L95
“Thermally Stable Nuclear Burning on Accreting White Dwarfs”
Shen, K. J., & Bildsten, L. 2007, ApJ, 660, 1444
Other publications:
“Energetic Eruptions Leading to a Peculiar Hydrogen-Rich Explosion of a Massive Star”
Inserra, C., et al. 2015, ApJ, 799, L2
Kelly, P. L., et al. 2014, ApJ, 790, 3
“Discovery of a Cosmological, Relativistic Outburst via its Rapidly Fading Optical Emission”
Cenko, S. B., et al. 2013, ApJ, 769, 130
Ganeshalingam, M., et al. 2012, ApJ, 751, 142
“A Compact Degenerate Primary-Star Progenitor of SN 2011fe”
Bloom, J. S., Kasen, D., Shen, K. J., et al. 2012, ApJ, 744, L17
“Exclusion of a Luminous Red Giant as a Companion Star to the Progenitor of Supernova SN 2011fe”
Li, W., et al. 2011, Nature, 480, 348
“Supernova PTF 09uj: A Possible Shock Breakout from a Dense Circumstellar Wind”
Ofek, E. O., et al. 2010, ApJ, 724, 1396
“Rapidly Decaying Supernova 2010X: A Candidate ‘.Ia’ Explosion”
Kasliwal, M. M., et al. 2010, ApJ, 723, L98
“A Faint Type of Supernova from a White Dwarf with a Helium-Rich Companion”
Perets, H. B., et al. 2010, Nature, 465, 322
Popular science press:
2017: “That ‘alien megastructure’ star might actually be a planet-eater”
2017: “This may be the best explanation yet for that mysterious ‘alien megastructure’ “
2017: ” ‘Alien megastructure’ signal may be due to star eating a planet”
2012: “Earliest-yet observation of August supernova nails it: Destroyed star was white dwarf”
2011: “Hubble images help pin down identity of August supernova’s companion star”
2009: “New type of supernova explosion reported; predicted by theoretical physicists at UCSB”