Career

• 2023-present: Postdoc, DAMTP, University of Cambridge
• 2020-2023: Postdoc, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)
• 2016-2020: PhD in Theoretical Astrophysics, DAMTP, University of Cambridge
• 2015-2016: Part III Mathematics, DAMTP, University of Cambridge
• 2011-2015: MSci in Astrophysics, Royal Holloway, University of London

Research

I am a theoretical astrophysicist and a member of the Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics research group. My research interests are mainly in astrophysical fluid dynamics, particularly as applied to accretion disks (of all shapes and sizes!). I am currently working on the dynamics of distorted disks (warped, eccentric, and tidally distorted). From 2020 to 2023 I worked as a postdoc in the Computational Relativistic Astrophysics Group at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute), where my research focused on disks that form from binary neutron star mergers. During my PhD I investigated convection in disks and the interaction of convection and the magnetorotational instability (MRI), with applications mainly to Dwarf Novae. I also have a long standing interest in turbulence, both homogeneous and isotropic, and also subject to various body forces (e.g. MHD turbulence, convective turbulence, turbulence in rotating media, etc.).

Publications

L.E. Held, G.I. Ogilvie, Disc breaking and parametric instability in warped accretion discs, MNRAS 546, 1-22 (2026), https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag245

A. Reboul-Salze, L. E. Held, K. Kiuchi, Magnetorotational instability-driven alpha-Omega dynamo at high magnetic Prandtl numbers, A&A 701, A198 (2025), https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202553714

L.E. Held, G.I. Ogilvie, Instability and warping in vertically oscillating accretion discs, MNRAS 535, 3108-3128 (2024), https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae2487

L.E. Held, G. Mamatsashvili, M.E. Pessah; MRI turbulence in vertically stratified accretion discs at large magnetic Prandtl numbers, MNRAS 530, 2232–2250 (2024), https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae929

L.E. Held, G. Mamatsashvili; MRI turbulence in accretion discs at large magnetic Prandtl numbers, MNRAS 517, 2309-2330 (2022), https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac2656

K. Kiuchi, L.E. Held, Y. Sekiguchi, M. Shibata, Implementation of advanced Riemann solvers in a neutrino-radiation magnetohydrodynamics code in numerical relativity and its application to a binary neutron star merger, PRL D 106, 124041 (2022), https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.106.124041

L.E. Held, H.N. Latter; The stress–pressure lag in MRI turbulence and its implications for thermal instability in accretion discs, MNRAS 510, 146–153 (2022), https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab3398

L.E. Held, H.N. Latter; Magnetohydrodynamic convection in accretion discs, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, MNRAS 504, 2940–2960 (2021), https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab974

L.E. Held, H.N.Latter; Hydrodynamic convection in accretion discs, MNRAS 480, 4797–4816 (2018), https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty2097