Daneng Yang

Daneng Yang

Associate Research Professor

Daneng Yang’s academic personal websites

My research explores the nature of dark matter and its role in shaping cosmic structure. I am particularly interested in understanding how the microscopic properties of dark matter influence the formation and evolution of galaxies, and how astrophysical observations can be used to uncover clues about the dark sector.

To address these questions, I combine analytical modeling, numerical simulations, and observational studies. On the theory side, I develop efficient methods for describing the evolution of dark matter halos, including parametric models, effective descriptions of dark matter interactions, and graph-path-based measures that connect halo growth histories to their present-day structure. These tools provide a fast and physically transparent alternative to large-scale simulations while retaining much of their predictive power.

I also work on numerical simulations of dark matter structure and galaxy formation. I developed a parallel simulation module for self-interacting dark matter that includes velocity- and angle-dependent scattering, and applied it to systems spanning dwarf galaxies to galaxy groups. These simulations have helped reveal the rich diversity of halo evolution that can arise in non-standard dark matter models.

A major goal of my research is to connect theoretical predictions with observations. My work has investigated how dark matter physics can shape the properties of strong gravitational lenses, influence the population of strong-lensing perturbers, and affect the formation of dark-matter-deficient galaxies. More recently, I have explored multi-component dark matter scenarios and developed new analytical methods that make it possible to study their astrophysical signatures efficiently.

Beyond dark matter self-interactions, I am broadly interested in cosmic structure formation, gravitational lensing, dark matter detection, and particle physics beyond the Standard Model.

Institutional Webpage

Appointments

  • 2024–Present, Associate Research Professor, Purple Mountain Observatory, CAS, Nanjing, China
  • 2021–2024, Postdoc, University of California, Riverside, CA, US
  • 2018–2021, Postdoc, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

Education

  • 2013–2018, Ph.D. of High Energy Physics, Department of Physics and State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, Peking University, Beijing, China
  • 2009–2013, Bachelor of Physics Studies, Department of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China

Selected talks to learn about my recent research

Publications

Full: https://inspirehep.net/authors/1246633?ui-citation-summary=true

Selected:

Daneng Yang ; Self-interacting dark matter with mass segregation: a unified explanation of dwarf cores and small-scale lenses, Sci.Bull. 71 (2026) 1349-1356

Daneng Yang ; Path Measures for Stochastic Galaxy Formation on Layered Halo Graphs, 2603.15128 [astro-ph.GA]

Daneng Yang ; Hai-Bo Yu ; Gravothermal evolution of dark matter halos with differential elastic scattering, Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2022, 09: 077

Daneng Yang ; Hai-Bo Yu; Haipeng An ; Self-Interacting Dark Matter and the Origin of Ultradiffuse Galaxies NGC1052-DF2 and -DF4, Physical Review Letters, 2020, 125(11):111105

Daneng Yang ; Ethan O. Nadler; Hai-Bo Yu; Yi-Ming Zhong ; A parametric model for self-interacting dark matter halos, Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2024, 02:032

Daneng Yang ; Exploring self-interacting dark matter halos with diverse baryonic distributions: A parametric approach, Physical Review D, 2024, 110(10): 103044

Daneng Yang ; Hai-Bo Yu ; Self-interacting dark matter and small-scale gravitational lenses in galaxy clusters, Physical Review D, 2021, 104(10): 103031

Daneng Yang ; Ethan O. Nadler; Hai-Bo Yu ; Strong Dark Matter Self-interactions Diversify Halo Populations within and surrounding the Milky Way, The Astrophysical Journal, 2023, 949(2):67

Daneng Yang ; Yue-Lin Sming Tsai; Yi-Zhong Fan; Diversifying halo structures in two-component self-interacting dark matter models via mass segregation, Physical Review D 112 (2025) 8, 8

Daneng Yang ; Ethan O. Nadler; Hai-Bo Yu; Testing the parametric model for self-interacting dark matter using matched halos in cosmological simulations, Physics of the Dark Universe, 2025, 47: 101807

Siyuan Hou; Daneng Yang; Nan Li; Guoliang Li; A universal analytic model for gravitational lensing by self-interacting dark matter halos, Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2025, 08 (2025) 048

Yi-Ying Wang; Daneng Yang; Keyu Lu; Yue-Lin Sming Tsai; Yi-Zhong Fan; Dark-Matter-Deficient Galaxies from Collisions: A New Probe of Bursty Feedback and Dark Matter Physics, e-Print: 2509.24270, accepted by the Astrophysical Journal Letters.