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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

Black holes, gravitational waves and fundamental physics: A roadmap
L Barack, V Cardoso, S Nissanke, TP Sotiriou, A Askar, K Belczynski, G Bertone, E Bon, D Blas, R Brito, T Bulik, C Burrage, CT Byrnes, C Caprini, M Chernyakova, P Chrusciel, M Colpi, V Ferrari, D Gaggero, J Gair, J Garcia-Bellido, SF Hassan, L Heisenberg, M Hendry, IS Heng, C Herdeiro, T Hinderer, A Horesh, BJ Kavanagh, B Kocsis, M Kramer, AL Tiec, C Mingarelli, G Nardini, G Nelemans, C Palenzuela, P Pani, A Perego, EK Porter, EM Rossi, P Schmidt, A Sesana, U Sperhake, A Stamerra, LC Stein, N Tamanini, TM Tauris, LA Urena-Lopez, F Vincent, M Volonteri, B Wardell, N Wex, K Yagi, T Abdelsalhin, MA Aloy, P Amaro-Seoane, L Annulli, M Arca-Sedda, I Bah, E Barausse, E Barakovic, R Benkel, CL Bennett, L Bernard, S Bernuzzi, CPL Berry, E Berti, M Bezares, JJ Blanco-Pillado, JL Blazquez-Salcedo, M Bonetti, M Boskovic, Z Bosnjak, K Bricman, B Bruegmann, PR Capelo, S Carloni, P Cerda-Duran, C Charmousis, S Chaty, A Clerici, A Coates, M Colleoni, LG Collodel, G Compere, W Cook, I Cordero-Carrion, M Correia, ADL Cruz-Dombriz, VG Czinner, K Destounis, K Dialektopoulos, D Doneva, M Dotti, A Drew, C Eckner, J Edholm, R Emparan, R Erdem, M Ferreira, PG Ferreira, A Finch, JA Font, N Franchini, K Fransen, D Gal'tsov, A Ganguly, D Gerosa, K Glampedakis, A Gomboc, A Goobar, L Gualtieri, E Guendelman, F Haardt, T Harmark, F Hejda, T Hertog, S Hopper, S Husa, N Ihanec, T Ikeda, A Jaodand, PJX Jimenez-Forteza, M Kamionkowski, DE Kaplan, S Kazantzidis, M Kimura, S Kobayashi, K Kokkotas, J Krolik, J Kunz, C Lammerzahl, P Lasky, JPS Lemos, JL Said, S Liberati, J Lopes, R Luna, Y-Z Ma, E Maggio, MM Montero, A Maselli, L Mayer, A Mazumdar, C Messenger, B Menard, M Minamitsuji, CJ Moore, D Mota, S Nampalliwar, A Nerozzi, D Nichols, E Nissimov, M Obergaulinger, NA Obers, R Oliveri, G Pappas, V Pasic, H Peiris, T Petrushevska, D Pollney, G Pratten, N Rakic, I Racz, M Radia, FM Ramazanouglu, A Ramos-Buades, G Raposo, R Rosca-Mead, M Rogatko, D Rosinska, S Rosswog, ER Morales, M Sakellariadou, N Sanchis-Gual, OS Salafia, A Samajdar, A Sintes, M Smole, C Sopuerta, R Souza-Lima, M Stalevski, N Stergioulas, C Stevens, T Tamfal, A Torres-Forne, S Tsygankov, K Unluturk, R Valiante, MVD Meent, J Velhinho, Y Verbin, B Vercnocke, D Vernieri, R Vicente, V Vitagliano, A Weltman, B Whiting, A Williamson, H Witek, A Wojnar, K Yakut, H Yan, S Yazadjiev, G Zaharijas, M Zilhao
– Classical and Quantum Gravity
(2019)
36,
143001
(doi: 10.1088/1361-6382/ab0587)
Inverse-chirp signals and spontaneous scalarisation with self-interacting potentials in stellar collapse
R Rosca-Mead, CJ Moore, M Agathos, U Sperhake
– Classical and Quantum Gravity
(2019)
36,
134003
(doi: 10.1088/1361-6382/ab256f)
Wide nutation: Binary black-hole spins repeatedly oscillating from full alignment to full anti-alignment
D Gerosa, A Lima, E Berti, U Sperhake, M Kesden, R O'Shaughnessy
– Classical and Quantum Gravity
(2019)
36,
105003
(doi: 10.1088/1361-6382/ab14ae)
Orbiting black-hole binaries and apparent horizons in higher dimensions
WG Cook, D Wang, U Sperhake
– Classical and Quantum Gravity
(2018)
35,
235008
(doi: 10.1088/1361-6382/aae995)
Black-hole head-on collisions in higher dimensions
WG Cook, U Sperhake, E Berti, V Cardoso
– Physical Review D
(2017)
96,
124006
(doi: 10.1103/physrevd.96.124006)
Long-Lived Inverse Chirp Signals from Core-Collapse in Massive Scalar-Tensor Gravity.
U Sperhake, CJ Moore, R Rosca, M Agathos, D Gerosa, CD Ott
– Physical review letters
(2017)
119,
201103
(doi: 10.1103/physrevlett.119.201103)
Gravitational Waves from Binary Black Hole Mergers inside Stars
JM Fedrow, CD Ott, U Sperhake, J Blackman, R Haas, C Reisswig, A De Felice
– Phys Rev Lett
(2017)
119,
171103
(doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.171103)
On the equal-mass limit of precessing black-hole binaries
D Gerosa, U Sperhake, J Vošmera
– Classical and Quantum Gravity
(2017)
34,
064004
(doi: 10.1088/1361-6382/aa5e58)
Extraction of gravitational-wave energy in higher dimensional numerical relativity using the Weyl tensor
WG Cook, U Sperhake
– Classical and Quantum Gravity
(2017)
34,
035010
(doi: 10.1088/1361-6382/aa5294)
Preface by the Editors
CAR Herdeiro, E Berti, V Cardoso, LCB Crispino, L Gualtieri, U Sperhake
– International Journal of Modern Physics D
(2016)
25,
1602002
(doi: 10.1142/s0218271816020028)
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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