I am a theoretical physicist working at the intersection of general relativity, particle physics and high-performance computing. My research asks what black holes can tell us about physics beyond the Standard Model, and whether spacetime itself can be engineered.
I completed my PhD at the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Heidelberg, where I studied superradiant instabilities of massive vector fields around rotating black holes and their gravitational-wave signatures for LISA. Along the way I wrote GRBoondi, an open-source numerical relativity code for evolving generalized Proca fields on arbitrary backgrounds. Before Heidelberg I studied at ETH Zurich, where my master’s thesis uncovered a hidden geometric structure in warp drive spacetimes, and at the University of Washington.
Today I lead research on applications of gravity to geophysical sciences, projects on fully-homomorphic encryption, warp drive physics and related questions in spacetime engineering at Applied Physics, and much more.
Three threads run through my work: black holes as laboratories for new physics, the simulation tools needed to study them, and the question of whether spacetime can be engineered.
Black holes as particle detectors
Ultralight bosons can grow exponentially around spinning black holes through superradiance. I study massive vector (Proca) fields in this regime, from their nonlinear evolution to the gravitational waves that LISA could use to detect them.
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Image: EHT Collaboration
Numerical relativity and open software
Strong-field gravity rarely yields to pen and paper. I build simulation tools, including GRBoondi, an open-source code for evolving generalized Proca theories on arbitrary spacetime backgrounds.
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Warp drives and spacetime engineering
Can we choose the shape of spacetime and ask what matter would produce it? My work uncovered hidden geometric structure in warp drive spacetimes and now explores their observable signatures.
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Kept up to date automatically from INSPIRE-HEP. Thumbnails are the first page of each paper.
2026
If exotic warp-drive propulsion were ever operating near Earth, it should not be able to hide: we simulated how a small, aircraft-sized spacetime bubble would sweep up and energize the air around it. Above roughly a tenth of the speed of light the interaction releases more than a trillion watts, producing an unmistakable glow, while slow-moving bubbles stay dark.
Journal of Open Source Software 9, 6888 (2024)
Simulating exotic fields in curved spacetime usually means writing a new code from scratch. GRBoondi is an open-source numerical relativity code that evolves any generalized Proca theory on any fixed background, so a new model can be studied in days rather than months.
Physical Review D 108, 083010 (2023)
Space-based gravitational-wave detectors could double as dark matter experiments. We model how a cloud of dark photons grown by a spinning supermassive black hole alters the orbit of a small companion, and show that LISA could use these signals to constrain the dark photon's mass.
Physical Review D 105, 024042 (2022)
General relativity can be rewritten in terms of non-metricity instead of curvature, and its non-linear extension f(Q) changes the physics. We derive the most general static, spherically symmetric geometries in f(Q) gravity and prove that it admits both GR-like and genuinely new black hole solutions, settling a debate in the literature.
Classical and Quantum Gravity 38, 155020 (2021)
Warp drives have long been thought to require enormous amounts of negative energy. By uncovering a hidden geometric structure in the energy of these spacetimes, we construct superluminal warp bubbles sourced entirely by positive energy, with total energy requirements four orders of magnitude below a solar mass.
Longer pieces for a general audience on the questions that keep me up at night.
