PhD Students

Black holes are known to form under a wide range of circumstances, and the classical process has been studied for a number of years, both analytically and numerically. In this project the evolution of the background geometry will be studied when the source is quantum mechanical, studying the conditions under which a black hole forms, and the properties of the final state.

Kate is working with Prof. Clare Burrage and Prof. Mark Fromhold on detecting effects of the fifth force mediated by the symmetron: a new light scalar field that couples to matter. By designing a topologically-tailored vacuum chamber, we can ensure that the topological defects or ‘domain walls’ that form as the characteristic phase transition of the symmetron field occurs are long-lived. As a cloud of cold atoms approaches a domain wall, it will experience the fifth force mediated by the scalar field. The deflection or reflection of the cold atom cloud is a signature of the fifth force and could constrain some previously unconstrained parts of the dark sector.

Peter works on the cosmological bootstrap. By focusing on basic properties like unitarity, locality or causality, we can straighten give constraints to or even solve for the theory, and directly leads to a prediction to the observable.

Lauren is working with Dr. Adam Moss and Prof. Anne Green, looking at the effects of axion-like-particles in the early universe and their potential as candidates for both dark energy and dark matter.

Matthew is working with Prof. Anne Green to understand whether primordial black holes are a viable candidate for dark matter. In contrast to astrophysical black holes (which form from the collapse of massive stars), primordial black holes are hypothesised to have formed in the very early Universe, presumably less than one second after the Big Bang.

Yang's PhD project mainly studies fundamental physics in cosmology, in particular double field theory cosmology and related topics.

Bradley works with Prof. Clare Burrage looking at Modified Theories of Gravity, Dark Matter, and the combination of these models.

Farbod researches Early Universe Effective Field Theories (EFTs) during phase transitions with Dr. Oliver Gould and Prof. Paul Saffin. He also collaborates with Prof. João Magueijo at Imperial College London on Topological Field Theory in gravity. His academic focus includes Algebraic Geometry's connections to Theoretical Physics. Personal website: https://farbodrassouli.xyz/.

Silvia is working on a Cosmology project in Analogue Gravity (Simulators for the Early Universe) with Prof. Silke Weinfurtner and Dr. Anastasios Avgoustidis. The aim is to experimentally simulate, using fluid systems, some characteristic behaviors of the early Universe.

Robert's PhD research is under the supervision of Prof. Ed Copeland and Prof. Tony Padilla. He works primarily in string / M-theory, with interests in non-perturbative theory, duality and geometry, and higher structures. His PhD investigates the non-perturbative completion of string theory in the form of M-theory.

Jade is working with Dr. Adam Moss and Prof. Ed Copeland on modelling the gravitational wave signals from cosmic strings, and using machine learning to develop methods to detect them in LIGO/Virgo and LISA data.

Kieran works with Prof. Paul Saffin and Dr. Anastasios Avgoustidis on clockwork gravity. The clockwork mechanism provides a means to generate light particles with suppressed interactions in fundamental theories with no large/small parameters. A gravitational clockwork provides a neat solution to the hierarchy problem, but we have little knowledge of its cosmological implications, which is where Kieran's work lies.