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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

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
(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 - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology
(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
– 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 Zenginoǧlu, 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)
Black Holes on Supercomputers: Numerical Relativity Applications to Astrophysics and High-energy Physics
U Sperhake
– Acta Physica Polonica B
(2013)
44,
2463
(doi: 10.5506/APhysPolB.44.2463)
Preface - NR/HEP2: Spring School on Numerical Relativity and High Energy Physics
V Cardoso, L Gualtieri, C Herdeiro, U Sperhake
– International Journal of Modern Physics A
(2013)
28,
1302003
(doi: 10.1142/S0217751X1302003X)
The NINJA-2 catalog of hybrid post-Newtonian/numerical-relativity waveforms for non-precessing black-hole binaries (vol 29, 124001, 2012)
P Ajith, M Boyle, DA Brown, B Bruegmann, LT Buchman, L Cadonati, M Campanelli, T Chu, ZB Etienne, S Fairhurst, M Hannam, J Healy, I Hinder, S Husa, LE Kidder, B Krishnan, P Laguna, YT Liu, L London, CO Lousto, G Lovelace, I MacDonald, P Marronetti, S Mohapatra, P Moesta, D Mueller, BC Mundim, H Nakano, F Ohme, V Paschalidis, L Pekowsky, D Pollney, HP Pfeiffer, M Ponce, M Puerrer, G Reifenberger, C Reisswig, L Santamaria, MA Scheel, SL Shapiro, D Shoemaker, CF Sopuerta, U Sperhake, B Szilagyi, NW Taylor, W Tichy, P Tsatsin, Y Zlochower
– Classical and Quantum Gravity
(2013)
30,
199401
(doi: 10.1088/0264-9381/30/19/199401)
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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