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

Dimensional reduction in numerical relativity: Modified Cartoon formalism and regularization

WG Cook, P Figueras, M Kunesch, U Sperhake, S Tunyasuvunakool

– International Journal of Modern Physics D

(2016)

25,

1641013

(doi: 10.1142/S0218271816410133)

Numerical relativity and high energy physics: Recent developments

E Berti, V Cardoso, LCB Crispino, L Gualtieri, C Herdeiro, U Sperhake

– International Journal of Modern Physics D

(2016)

25,

1641022

(doi: 10.1142/S0218271816410224)

Numerical simulations of stellar collapse in scalar-tensor theories of gravity

D Gerosa, U Sperhake, CD Ott

– Classical and Quantum Gravity

(2016)

33,

135002

(doi: 10.1088/0264-9381/33/13/135002)

Distinguishing black-hole spin-orbit resonances by their gravitational wave signatures. II. Full parameter estimation

D Trifirò, R O'Shaughnessy, D Gerosa, E Berti, M Kesden, T Littenberg, U Sperhake

– Physical Review D

(2016)

93,

044071

(doi: 10.1103/PhysRevD.93.044071)

Gravity-dominated unequal-mass black hole collisions

U Sperhake, E Berti, V Cardoso, F Pretorius

– Physical Review D

(2016)

93,

044012

(doi: 10.1103/physrevd.93.044012)

Testing general relativity with present and future astrophysical observations

E Berti, E Barausse, V Cardoso, L Gualtieri, P Pani, U Sperhake, LC Stein, N Wex, K Yagi, T Baker, CP Burgess, FS Coelho, D Doneva, A De Felice, PG Ferreira, PCC Freire, J Healy, C Herdeiro, M Horbatsch, B Kleihaus, A Klein, K Kokkotas, J Kunz, P Laguna, RN Lang, TGF Li, T Littenberg, A Matas, S Mirshekari, H Okawa, E Radu, R O'Shaughnessy, BS Sathyaprakash, C Van Den Broeck, HA Winther, H Witek, ME Aghili, J Alsing, B Bolen, L Bombelli, S Caudill, L Chen, JC Degollado, R Fujita, C Gao, D Gerosa, S Kamali, HO Silva, JG Rosa, L Sadeghian, M Sampaio, H Sotani, M Zilhao

– Classical and Quantum Gravity

(2015)

32,

243001

(doi: 10.1088/0264-9381/32/24/243001)

Precessional Instability in Binary Black Holes with Aligned Spins.

D Gerosa, M Kesden, R O'Shaughnessy, A Klein, E Berti, U Sperhake, D Trifirò

– Phys Rev Lett

(2015)

115,

141102

(doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.141102)