Chuan-Peng Zhang

Welcome to my homepage!

I am Chuan-Peng Zhang, an astronomer and Associate Researcher at the National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC), where I work at the FAST Operation and Development Center. I previously held a postdoctoral position at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Germany.

My current research focuses on the FAST All-Sky HI Survey (FASHI), including the construction of the HI source catalog, measurements of the HI mass function, and studies of the cosmic HI density evolution. My broader research interests also cover extragalactic OH megamasers, early high-mass star formation, giant molecular clouds, infrared dust bubbles, infrared dark clouds, fragmentation, and deuteration in high-mass star-forming regions.

Please visit this page to learn more about my research. A full list of publications can be accessed via this link.

About me

Current Work

The FAST All Sky H I Survey (FASHI) conducted with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) has mapped ∼19 500 deg² of the sky north of DEC = −14°, detecting 156 411 extragalactic H I sources at z < 0.09 with a median sensitivity of 0.57 mJy beam⁻¹ at a velocity resolution of 6.4 km s⁻¹. The survey achieves unprecedented depth and area coverage, significantly improving upon previous single-dish surveys. Through a detailed completeness analysis that accounts for the survey's non-uniform sensitivity and line-width dependence, we construct a robust H I mass function (HIMF) using a completeness‑corrected sample of over 109 000 sources. The HIMF is robustly constrained down to M_HI ∼ 10^6.2 M_⊙. When systematic uncertainties are included, the HIMF is well described by a single-Schechter function with a characteristic mass log(M_s/h₇₀⁻² M_⊙) = 9.89 ± 0.02, low-mass end slope α = −1.31±0.02 and amplitude φ_s = (6.38±0.49)×10⁻³h₇₀³ Mpc⁻³ dex⁻¹. The derived cosmic H I density is Ω_HI = (4.71 ± 0.03_stat±0.40_sys) × 10⁻⁴ h₇₀⁻¹. FASHI provides the most extensive and sensitive H I catalog to date, establishing an important benchmark for studies of gas accretion, galaxy evolution, and large-scale structure in the local universe.

Astro links