Topic: compact objects

Ore Gottlieb’s group studies compact objects and high-energy transients through general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations, analytical models and multimessenger predictions. Topics include black holes, neutron stars, collapsars, stellar explosions, compact-object mergers, gamma-ray bursts, nucleosynthesis and gravitational waves. The researcher can develop independent projects and use leadership-class computing allocations. The benefits-eligible appointment is for two years with a possible third year, beginning flexibly in summer or autumn 2027. Salary is $73,308–$90,000. Application

Future extreme-mass-ratio inspiral detections could identify how compact objects reach massive black holes. This talk compares expected eccentricities, inclinations and component masses for gas-free and gas-assisted formation. It examines how population measurements might separate channels and reveal properties of active-galaxy disks, including lifetimes and turbulence, as well as accretion behaviour and stellar black-hole populations in nuclear clusters.

Ulrich Sperhake and Seppe Staelens explain hypothetical boson stars and how researchers use mathematical modelling to investigate them. The discussion connects these unusual compact objects to black holes, gravity and gravitational-wave observations.

Ania Liu examines gravitational-wave lensing as a probe of compact objects, dark matter and cosmic large-scale structure. Propagation over cosmological distances can distort signals, but identifying lensing in observations requires disentangling those distortions from uncertain waveform models and other astrophysical effects. The talk describes this phenomenology and the ambiguities it creates for interpretation, then presents recent methods and results from lensing searches using LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA data.