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Research
I explore fundamental physics through cosmological and astrophysical systems, studying both established physical processes and possibilities beyond our current theories. All publications →
Research interests
Astrophysical laboratories for fundamental physics
What can astrophysical systems teach us about the laws of nature? I study how gravity, particle interactions, and radiation shape observable phenomena in compact objects and their surroundings. My work spans neutron star cooling and transients, magnetic white dwarfs, gravitational lensing, and dark matter structures near black holes. I am interested both in understanding the underlying physical processes and in using these environments to test fundamental theories.
Representative work
- Time-domain axion searches with magnetic white dwarfs — exploring changes in starlight as a probe of axions.
- Metastable neutron stars as transient-rate detectors of heavy dark matter — using neutron star transient rates to investigate heavy dark matter.
Dark matter theory and phenomenology
How does dark matter originate, evolve, and interact with ordinary matter and gravity? I investigate these questions with a particular interest in scalar and vector fields, including axions and dark photons. My work connects dark matter production and wave dynamics with interactions involving neutrinos and gravity, seeking observable consequences in cosmology, astrophysics, and laboratory experiments.
Representative work
- Testing the dark origin of neutrino masses with oscillation experiments — testing a possible connection between dark matter and neutrino masses.
- Dark photon dark matter from flattened axion potentials — proposing a healthy production mechanism for ultralight dark photon dark matter in the early universe.
Nonlinear dynamics in cosmology
Nonlinear dynamics is fascinating. It lies at the borderline between predictability and unpredictability, encompassing a rich phenomenology and providing a unique regime to develop physical and mathematical techniques. I study how interacting fields form localized structures, how these structures evolve and decay, and how gravity affects their stability. My work includes scalar and vector solitons, oscillons, effective field theories, and the consistency of interacting vector fields. These questions also motivate my broader interests in preheating, parametric resonance, and cosmological structure formation, combining analytical reasoning with numerical computation.
Representative work
- Unified view of scalar and vector dark matter solitons — developing a unified description of localized dark matter field configurations.
- Classical decay rates of oscillons — investigating how localized, nonlinear field configurations lose energy and decay.
Research software
I develop tools for my research and share them for others to use:
- DMSolitonFinder — a Mathematica package for computing dark-matter soliton solutions.
- AxionDarkPhotonSimulator — a Python package for simulating axion-dark-photon dynamics in an expanding universe.
- UnitConversion — a Mathematica package for unit conversion with customizable natural units.
Research notes
Practical references for research and computation: