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Relativity and Gravitation Group

Professor Ulrich Sperhake

 

Career

  • 2012-date: Lecturer, DAMTP, University of Cambridge
  • 2010-2012: Ramon y Cajal Researcher, Institute of Space Sciences, CSIC-IEEC Barcelona
  • 2008-2010: Senior Postdoc, Division of Physics, Maths and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology
  • 2005-2008: Postdoc, Theoretical Physics Institute, University of Jena
  • 2002-2005: Postdoc, Center for Gravitational Wave Physics, Penn State University
  • 2001-2002: Postdoc, Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  • 1998-2001: PhD, School of Mathematics, University of Southampton

Research

Ulrich Sperhake is a member of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics General Relativity  research group. His current research interests are Numerical Relativity, Black Holes as sources of Gravitational Waves, High-Energy Collisions of Black Holes.

Selected Publications

 

  • M.Kesden, D.Gerosa, R.O'Shaughnessy, E.Berti, U.Sperhake, "Effective potentials and morphological transitions for binary black-hole spin precession", Phys. Rev. Lett. 114 (2015) 081103
  • U.Sperhake, E.Berti, V.Cardoso and F.Pretorius, "Universality, maximum radiation and absorption in high-energy collisions of black holes with spin", Phys. Rev. Lett. 106 (2011) 161103
  • C.D.Ott, C.Reisswig, E.Schnetter, E.O'Connor, U.Sperhake, F.Loeffler, P.Diener, E.Abdikamalov, I.Hawke and A.Burrows, "Dynamics and Gravitational Wave Signature of Collapsar Formation", Phys. Rev. Lett. 106 (2011) 161103
  • M.Zilhao, H.Witek, U.Sperhake, V.Cardoso, L.Gualtieri, C.Herdeiro and A.Nerozzi, "Numerical relativity for D dimensional axially symmetric space-times: formalism and code tests", Phys. Rev. D 81 (2010) 084052
  • U.Sperhake, V.Cardoso, F.Pretorius, E.Berti, T.Hinderer and N. Yunes, "Cross section, final spin and zoom-whirl behavior in high-energy black hole collisions", Phys. Rev. Lett. 103 (2009) 131102
  • B.Aylott et al., "Testing gravitational-wave searches with numerical relativity waveforms: Results from the first Numerical INJection Analysis (NINJA) project", Class. Quantum Grav. 26 (2009) 165008
  • U.Sperhake, V.Cardoso, F.Pretorius, E.Berti and J.A.Gonzalez, "The high-energy collision of two black holes", Phys. Rev. Lett. 101 (2008) 161101
  • P.Ajith et al., "A Template bank for gravitational waveforms from coalescing binary black holes. I. Non-spinning binaries", Phys. Rev. D 77 (2008) 104017
  • J.A.Gonzalez, M.D.Hannam, U.Sperhake, B.Bruegmann and S.Husa, "Supermassive kicks for spinning black holes", Phys. Rev. Lett. 98 (2007) 231101
  • J.A.Gonzalez, U.Sperhake, B.Bruegmann, M.D.Hannam and S.Husa, "The maximum kick from nonspinning black-hole binary inspiral", Phys. Rev. Lett. 98 (2007) 091101
  • E.Berti, V.Cardoso, J.A. Gonzalez, U.Sperhake, M.Hannam, S.Husa and B.Bruegmann, "Inspiral, merger and ringdown of unequal mass black hole binaries: A multipolar analysis", Phys. Rev. D 76 (2007) 064034
  • U.Sperhake, "Binary black-hole evolutions of excision and puncture data", Phys. Rev. D 76 (2007) 104015

Publications

Numerical relativity in higher dimensions
U SPERHAKE
– 13th Marcel Grossmann Meeting on Recent Developments in Theoretical and Experimental General Relativity Astrophysics and Relativistic Field Theories Proceedings of the Mg13 Meeting on General Relativity 2012
(2015)
524
(doi: 10.1142/9789814623995_0025)
Testing the nonlinear stability of Kerr-Newman black holes
M Zilhão, V Cardoso, C Herdeiro, L Lehner, U Sperhake
– Physical Review D Particles Fields Gravitation and Cosmology
(2014)
90,
124088
(doi: 10.1103/PhysRevD.90.124088)
Gravitational recoil and astrophysical impact
U Sperhake
– Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings
(2014)
40,
185
(doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-10488-1_16)
Higher dimensional numerical relativity: Code comparison
H Witek, H Okawa, V Cardoso, L Gualtieri, C Herdeiro, M Shibata, U Sperhake, M Zilhão
– Physical Review D Particles Fields Gravitation and Cosmology
(2014)
90,
084014
(doi: 10.1103/physrevd.90.084014)
Distinguishing black-hole spin-orbit resonances by their gravitational-wave signatures
D Gerosa, R O’Shaughnessy, M Kesden, E Berti, U Sperhake
– Physical Review D
(2014)
89,
124025
(doi: 10.1103/PhysRevD.89.124025)
Black Hole Collisions in Asymptotically de Sitter Spacetimes
M Zilhão, V Cardoso, L Gualtieri, C Herdeiro, U Sperhake, H Witek
– Springer Proceedings in Physics
(2014)
157,
247
(doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-06761-2_31)
The NINJA-2 project: detecting and characterizing gravitational waveforms modelled using numerical binary black hole simulations
J Aasi, BP Abbott, R Abbott, T Abbott, MR Abernathy, T Accadia, F Acernese, K Ackley, C Adams, T Adams, P Addesso, RX Adhikari, C Affeldt, M Agathos, N Aggarwal, OD Aguiar, A Ain, P Ajith, A Alemic, B Allen, A Allocca, D Amariutei, M Andersen, R Anderson, SB Anderson, WG Anderson, K Arai, MC Araya, C Arceneaux, J Areeda, SM Aston, P Astone, P Aufmuth, C Aulbert, L Austin, BE Aylott, S Babak, PT Baker, G Ballardin, SW Ballmer, JC Barayoga, M Barbet, BC Barish, D Barker, F Barone, B Barr, L Barsotti, M Barsuglia, MA Barton, I Bartos, R Bassiri, A Basti, JC Batch, J Bauchrowitz, TS Bauer, B Behnke, M Bejger, MG Beker, C Belczynski, AS Bell, C Bell, G Bergmann, D Bersanetti, A Bertolini, J Betzwieser, PT Beyersdorf, IA Bilenko, G Billingsley, J Birch, S Biscans, M Bitossi, MA Bizouard, E Black, JK Blackburn, L Blackburn, D Blair, S Bloemen, M Blom, O Bock, TP Bodiya, M Boer, G Bogaert, C Bogan, C Bond, F Bondu, L Bonelli, R Bonnand, R Bork, M Born, V Boschi, S Bose, L Bosi, C Bradaschia, PR Brady, VB Braginsky, M Branchesi, JE Brau, T Briant, DO Bridges, A Brillet, M Brinkmann, V Brisson, AF Brooks, DA Brown, DD Brown, F Brückner, S Buchman, T Bulik, HJ Bulten, A Buonanno, R Burman, D Buskulic, C Buy, L Cadonati, G Cagnoli, JC Bustillo, E Calloni, JB Camp, P Campsie, KC Cannon, B Canuel, J Cao, CD Capano, F Carbognani, L Carbone, S Caride, A Castiglia, S Caudill, M Cavaglià, F Cavalier, R Cavalieri, C Celerier, G Cella, C Cepeda, E Cesarini, R Chakraborty, T Chalermsongsak, SJ Chamberlin, S Chao, P Charlton, E Chassande-Mottin, X Chen, Y Chen, A Chincarini, A Chiummo, HS Cho, J Chow, N Christensen, Q Chu, SSY Chua, S Chung, G Ciani, F Clara, JA Clark, F Cleva, E Coccia, P-F Cohadon, A Colla, C Collette, M Colombini, L Cominsky, M Constancio, A Conte, D Cook, TR Corbitt, M Cordier, N Cornish, A Corpuz, A Corsi, CA Costa, MW Coughlin, S Coughlin, J-P Coulon, S Countryman, P Couvares, DM Coward, M Cowart, DC Coyne, R Coyne, K Craig, JDE Creighton, SG Crowder, A Cumming, L Cunningham, E Cuoco, K Dahl, T Dal Canton, M Damjanic, SL Danilishin, S D’Antonio, K Danzmann, V Dattilo, H Daveloza, M Davier, GS Davies, EJ Daw, R Day, T Dayanga, G Debreczeni, J Degallaix, S Deléglise, W Del Pozzo, T Denker, T Dent, H Dereli, V Dergachev, R De Rosa, RT DeRosa, R DeSalvo, S Dhurandhar, M Díaz, L Di Fiore, A Di Lieto, I Di Palma, A Di Virgilio, A Donath, F Donovan, KL Dooley, S Doravari, S Dossa, R Douglas, TP Downes, M Drago, RWP Drever, JC Driggers, Z Du, S Dwyer, T Eberle, T Edo, M Edwards, A Effler, H Eggenstein, P Ehrens, J Eichholz, SS Eikenberry, G Endrőczi, R Essick, T Etzel, M Evans, T Evans, M Factourovich, V Fafone, S Fairhurst, Q Fang, S Farinon, B Farr, WM Farr, M Favata, H Fehrmann, MM Fejer, D Feldbaum, F Feroz, I Ferrante, F Ferrini, F Fidecaro, LS Finn, I Fiori, RP Fisher, R Flaminio, J-D Fournier, S Franco, S Frasca, F Frasconi, M Frede, Z Frei, A Freise, R Frey, TT Fricke, P Fritschel, VV Frolov, P Fulda, M Fyffe, J Gair, L Gammaitoni, S Gaonkar, F Garufi, N Gehrels, G Gemme, E Genin, A Gennai, S Ghosh, JA Giaime, KD Giardina, A Giazotto, C Gill, J Gleason, E Goetz, R Goetz, L Gondan, G González, N Gordon, ML Gorodetsky, S Gossan, S Goßler, R Gouaty, C Gräf, PB Graff, M Granata, A Grant, S Gras, C Gray, RJS Greenhalgh, AM Gretarsson, P Groot, H Grote, K Grover, S Grunewald, GM Guidi, C Guido, K Gushwa, EK Gustafson, R Gustafson, D Hammer, G Hammond, M Hanke, J Hanks, C Hanna, J Hanson, J Harms, GM Harry, IW Harry, ED Harstad, M Hart, MT Hartman, C-J Haster, K Haughian, A Heidmann, M Heintze, H Heitmann, P Hello, G Hemming, M Hendry, IS Heng, AW Heptonstall, M Heurs, M Hewitson, S Hild, D Hoak, KA Hodge, K Holt, S Hooper, P Hopkins, DJ Hosken, J Hough, EJ Howell, Y Hu, B Hughey, S Husa, SH Huttner, M Huynh, T Huynh-Dinh, DR Ingram, R Inta, T Isogai, A Ivanov, BR Iyer, K Izumi, M Jacobson, E James, H Jang, P Jaranowski, Y Ji, F Jiménez-Forteza, WW Johnson, DI Jones, R Jones, RJG Jonker, L Ju, K Haris, P Kalmus, V Kalogera, S Kandhasamy, G Kang, JB Kanner, J Karlen, M Kasprzack, E Katsavounidis, W Katzman, H Kaufer, K Kawabe, F Kawazoe, F Kéfélian, GM Keiser, D Keitel, DB Kelley, W Kells, A Khalaidovski, FY Khalili, EA Khazanov, C Kim, K Kim, N Kim, NG Kim, Y-M Kim, EJ King, PJ King, DL Kinzel, JS Kissel, S Klimenko, J Kline, S Koehlenbeck, K Kokeyama, V Kondrashov, S Koranda, WZ Korth, I Kowalska, DB Kozak, A Kremin, V Kringel, B Krishnan, A Królak, G Kuehn, A Kumar, P Kumar, R Kumar, L Kuo, A Kutynia, P Kwee, M Landry, B Lantz, S Larson, PD Lasky, C Lawrie, A Lazzarini, C Lazzaro, P Leaci, S Leavey, EO Lebigot, C-H Lee, HK Lee, HM Lee, J Lee, M Leonardi, JR Leong, A Le Roux, N Leroy, N Letendre, Y Levin, B Levine, J Lewis, TGF Li, K Libbrecht, A Libson, AC Lin, TB Littenberg, V Litvine, NA Lockerbie, V Lockett, D Lodhia, K Loew, J Logue, AL Lombardi, M Lorenzini, V Loriette, M Lormand, G Losurdo, J Lough, MJ Lubinski, H Lück, E Luijten, AP Lundgren, R Lynch, Y Ma, J Macarthur, EP Macdonald, T MacDonald, B Machenschalk, M MacInnis, DM Macleod, F Magana-Sandoval, M Mageswaran, C Maglione, K Mailand, E Majorana, I Maksimovic, V Malvezzi, N Man, GM Manca, I Mandel, V Mandic, V Mangano, N Mangini, M Mantovani, F Marchesoni, F Marion, S Márka, Z Márka, A Markosyan, E Maros, J Marque, F Martelli, IW Martin, RM Martin, L Martinelli, D Martynov, JN Marx, K Mason, A Masserot, TJ Massinger, F Matichard, L Matone, RA Matzner, N Mavalvala, N Mazumder, G Mazzolo, R McCarthy, DE McClelland, SC McGuire, G McIntyre, J McIver, K McLin, D Meacher, GD Meadors, M Mehmet, J Meidam, M Meinders, A Melatos, G Mendell, RA Mercer, S Meshkov, C Messenger, P Meyers, H Miao, C Michel, EE Mikhailov, L Milano, S Milde, J Miller, Y Minenkov, CMF Mingarelli, C Mishra, S Mitra, VP Mitrofanov, G Mitselmakher, R Mittleman, B Moe, P Moesta, M Mohan, SRP Mohapatra, D Moraru, G Moreno, N Morgado, SR Morriss, K Mossavi, B Mours, CM Mow-Lowry, CL Mueller, G Mueller, S Mukherjee, A Mullavey, J Munch, D Murphy, PG Murray, A Mytidis, MF Nagy, DN Kumar, I Nardecchia, L Naticchioni, RK Nayak, V Necula, G Nelemans, I Neri, M Neri, G Newton, T Nguyen, A Nitz, F Nocera, D Nolting, MEN Normandin, LK Nuttall, E Ochsner, J O’Dell, E Oelker, JJ Oh, SH Oh, F Ohme, P Oppermann, B O’Reilly, R O’Shaughnessy, C Osthelder, DJ Ottaway, RS Ottens, H Overmier, BJ Owen, C Padilla, A Pai, O Palashov, C Palomba, H Pan, Y Pan, C Pankow, F Paoletti, R Paoletti, MA Papa, H Paris, A Pasqualetti, R Passaquieti, D Passuello, M Pedraza, S Penn, A Perreca, M Phelps, M Pichot, M Pickenpack, F Piergiovanni, V Pierro, L Pinard, IM Pinto, M Pitkin, J Poeld, R Poggiani, A Poteomkin, J Powell, J Prasad, S Premachandra, T Prestegard, LR Price, M Prijatelj, S Privitera, GA Prodi, L Prokhorov, O Puncken, M Punturo, P Puppo, J Qin, V Quetschke, E Quintero, G Quiroga, R Quitzow-James, FJ Raab, DS Rabeling, I Rácz, H Radkins, P Raffai, S Raja, G Rajalakshmi, M Rakhmanov, C Ramet, K Ramirez, P Rapagnani, V Raymond, V Re, J Read, CM Reed, T Regimbau, S Reid, DH Reitze, E Rhoades, F Ricci, K Riles, NA Robertson, F Robinet, A Rocchi, M Rodruck, L Rolland, JG Rollins, R Romano, G Romanov, JH Romie, D Rosińska, S Rowan, A Rüdiger, P Ruggi, K Ryan, F Salemi, L Sammut, V Sandberg, JR Sanders, V Sannibale, I Santiago-Prieto, E Saracco, B Sassolas, BS Sathyaprakash, PR Saulson, R Savage, J Scheuer, R Schilling, R Schnabel, RMS Schofield, E Schreiber, D Schuette, BF Schutz, J Scott, SM Scott, D Sellers, AS Sengupta, D Sentenac, V Sequino, A Sergeev, D Shaddock, S Shah, MS Shahriar, M Shaltev, B Shapiro, P Shawhan, DH Shoemaker, TL Sidery, K Siellez, X Siemens, D Sigg, D Simakov, A Singer, L Singer, R Singh, AM Sintes, BJJ Slagmolen, J Slutsky, JR Smith, M Smith, RJE Smith, ND Smith-Lefebvre, EJ Son, B Sorazu, T Souradeep, L Sperandio, A Staley, J Stebbins, J Steinlechner, S Steinlechner, BC Stephens, S Steplewski, S Stevenson, R Stone, D Stops, KA Strain, N Straniero, S Strigin, R Sturani, AL Stuver, TZ Summerscales, S Susmithan, PJ Sutton, B Swinkels, M Tacca, D Talukder, DB Tanner, SP Tarabrin, R Taylor, APMT Braack, MP Thirugnanasambandam, M Thomas, P Thomas, KA Thorne, KS Thorne, E Thrane, V Tiwari, KV Tokmakov, C Tomlinson, A Toncelli, M Tonelli, O Torre, CV Torres, CI Torrie, F Travasso, G Traylor, M Tse, D Ugolini, CS Unnikrishnan, AL Urban, K Urbanek, H Vahlbruch, G Vajente, G Valdes, M Vallisneri, JFJ van den Brand, C Van Den Broeck, S van der Putten, MV van der Sluys, J van Heijningen, AA van Veggel, S Vass, M Vasúth, R Vaulin, A Vecchio, G Vedovato, J Veitch, PJ Veitch, K Venkateswara, D Verkindt, SS Verma, F Vetrano, A Viceré, R Vincent-Finley, J-Y Vinet, S Vitale, T Vo, H Vocca, C Vorvick, WD Vousden, SP Vyachanin, A Wade, L Wade, M Wade, M Walker, L Wallace, M Wang, X Wang, RL Ward, M Was, B Weaver, L-W Wei, M Weinert, AJ Weinstein, R Weiss, T Welborn, L Wen, P Wessels, M West, T Westphal, K Wette, JT Whelan, SE Whitcomb, DJ White, BF Whiting, K Wiesner, C Wilkinson, K Williams, L Williams, R Williams, T Williams, AR Williamson, JL Willis, B Willke, M Wimmer, W Winkler, CC Wipf, AG Wiseman, H Wittel, G Woan, J Worden, J Yablon, I Yakushin, H Yamamoto, CC Yancey, H Yang, Z Yang, S Yoshida, M Yvert, A Zadrożny, M Zanolin, J-P Zendri, F Zhang, L Zhang, C Zhao, XJ Zhu, ME Zucker, S Zuraw, J Zweizig, M Boyle, B Brügmann, LT Buchman, M Campanelli, T Chu, ZB Etienne, M Hannam, J Healy, I Hinder, LE Kidder, P Laguna, YT Liu, L London, CO Lousto, G Lovelace, I MacDonald, P Marronetti, P Mösta, D Müller, BC Mundim, H Nakano, V Paschalidis, L Pekowsky, D Pollney, HP Pfeiffer, M Ponce, M Pürrer, G Reifenberger, C Reisswig, L Santamaría, MA Scheel, SL Shapiro, D Shoemaker, CF Sopuerta, U Sperhake, B Szilágyi, NW Taylor, W Tichy, P Tsatsin, Y Zlochower
– Classical and Quantum Gravity
(2014)
31,
115004
(doi: 10.1088/0264-9381/31/11/115004)
Numerical relativity: the role of black holes in gravitational wave physics, astrophysics and high-energy physics
U Sperhake
– General Relativity and Gravitation
(2014)
46,
1689
(doi: 10.1007/s10714-014-1689-z)
Collisions of oppositely charged black holes
M Zilhão, V Cardoso, C Herdeiro, L Lehner, U Sperhake
– Physical Review D Particles Fields Gravitation and Cosmology
(2014)
89,
044008
(doi: 10.1103/PhysRevD.89.044008)
Error-analysis and comparison to analytical models of numerical waveforms produced by the NRAR Collaboration
I Hinder, A Buonanno, M Boyle, ZB Etienne, J Healy, NK Johnson-McDaniel, A Nagar, H Nakano, Y Pan, HP Pfeiffer, M Pürrer, C Reisswig, MA Scheel, E Schnetter, U Sperhake, B Szilágyi, W Tichy, B Wardell, A Zenginoğlu, D Alic, S Bernuzzi, T Bode, B Brügmann, LT Buchman, M Campanelli, T Chu, T Damour, JD Grigsby, M Hannam, R Haas, DA Hemberger, S Husa, LE Kidder, P Laguna, L London, G Lovelace, CO Lousto, P Marronetti, RA Matzner, P Mösta, A Mroué, D Müller, BC Mundim, A Nerozzi, V Paschalidis, D Pollney, G Reifenberger, L Rezzolla, SL Shapiro, D Shoemaker, A Taracchini, NW Taylor, SA Teukolsky, M Thierfelder, H Witek, Y Zlochower
– Classical and Quantum Gravity
(2013)
31,
025012
(doi: 10.1088/0264-9381/31/2/025012)
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Research Group

Relativity and Gravitation

Email

U.Sperhake@damtp.cam.ac.uk

Room

B1.01

Telephone

01223 766861

Study at Cambridge

About the University

Research at Cambridge