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Faculty of Mathematics

 

I'm a theoretical physicist, working at the interface between cosmology, astrophysics, high-energy physics, and quantum matter. My research looks at new ways of probing the fundamental laws of Nature, whether by using gravitational waves as powerful new astronomical messengers, or by using cutting-edge quantum technologies to simulate the early Universe.

I'm currently based at the University of Cambridge, where I hold the Gavin Boyle Fellowship in Cosmology at the Kavli Institute for Cosmology (KICC) and the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP). I have also recently been awarded a UKRI Stephen Hawking Fellowship, and am a Fellow of Selwyn College.

Much of my current work focuses on vacuum decay, a fascinating quantum-mechanical phenomenon that is a ubiquitous feature of early-Universe cosmology. As a member of the Quantum Simulators for Fundamental Physics (QSimFP) Consortium, I am helping to develop laboratory experiments that will empirically test our understanding of vacuum decay for the first time. These experiments could have important and far-reaching implications for areas ranging from inflation and the multiverse to the stability of the Higgs field.

Another key focus of my research is gravitational-wave astronomy. I am particularly interested in using gravitational-wave observations to probe cosmology and fundamental physics, for example by searching for signals generated in the very early Universe, or by using gravitational-wave sources as tracers of cosmic structure formation. In 2023 I was awarded a Buchalter Cosmology Prize (2nd prize) for my work on detecting gravitational waves via their effect on binary systems.

I was previously a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Cosmoparticle Initiative at University College London (2021-2024). I did my PhD in Theoretical Physics at King's College London (2017-2021), and my MA and MSci in Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge (2013-2017).

Publications

GWTC-2.1: Deep extended catalog of compact binary coalescences observed by LIGO and Virgo during the first half of the third observing run
R Abbott, TD Abbott, F Acernese, K Ackley, C Adams, N Adhikari, RX Adhikari, VB Adya, C Affeldt, D Agarwal, M Agathos, K Agatsuma, N Aggarwal, OD Aguiar, L Aiello, A Ain, P Ajith, S Albanesi, A Allocca, PA Altin, A Amato, C Anand, S Anand, A Ananyeva, SB Anderson et al.
– Physical Review D
(2024)
109,
022001
Analog vacuum decay from vacuum initial conditions
AC Jenkins, J Braden, HV Peiris, A Pontzen, MC Johnson, S Weinfurtner
– Physical Review D
(2024)
109,
023506
Unbiased estimation of gravitational-wave anisotropies from noisy data
N Kouvatsos, AC Jenkins, AI Renzini, JD Romano, M Sakellariadou
(2023)
GWTC-3: Compact Binary Coalescences Observed by LIGO and Virgo during the Second Part of the Third Observing Run
R Abbott, TD Abbott, F Acernese, K Ackley, C Adams, N Adhikari, RX Adhikari, VB Adya, C Affeldt, D Agarwal, M Agathos, K Agatsuma, N Aggarwal, OD Aguiar, L Aiello, A Ain, P Ajith, S Akcay, T Akutsu, S Albanesi, A Allocca, PA Altin, A Amato, C Anand, S Anand et al.
– Physical Review X
(2023)
13,
041039
Generalized cold-atom simulators for vacuum decay
AC Jenkins, IG Moss, TP Billam, Z Hadzibabic, HV Peiris, A Pontzen
(2023)
Search for Gravitational Waves Associated with Fast Radio Bursts Detected by CHIME/FRB during the LIGO-Virgo Observing Run O3a
R Abbott, TD Abbott, F Acernese, K Ackley, C Adams, N Adhikari, RX Adhikari, VB Adya, C Affeldt, D Agarwal, M Agathos, K Agatsuma, N Aggarwal, OD Aguiar, L Aiello, A Ain, P Ajith, T Akutsu, S Albanesi, A Allocca, PA Altin, A Amato, C Anand, S Anand, A Ananyeva et al.
– Astrophysical Journal
(2023)
955,
155
Cosmology with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
P Auclair, D Bacon, T Baker, T Barreiro, N Bartolo, E Belgacem, N Bellomo, I Ben-Dayan, D Bertacca, M Besancon, JJ Blanco-Pillado, D Blas, G Boileau, G Calcagni, R Caldwell, C Caprini, C Carbone, CF Chang, HY Chen, N Christensen, S Clesse, D Comelli, G Congedo, C Contaldi, M Crisostomi et al.
– Living Reviews in Relativity
(2023)
26,
5
A Joint Fermi-GBM and Swift-BAT Analysis of Gravitational-Wave Candidates from the Third Gravitational-wave Observing Run
C Fletcher, J Wood, R Hamburg, P Veres, CM Hui, E Bissaldi, MS Briggs, E Burns, WH Cleveland, MM Giles, A Goldstein, BA Hristov, D Kocevski, S Lesage, B Mailyan, C Malacaria, S Poolakkil, AV Kienlin, CA Wilson-Hodge, TFG-RBM Team, M Crnogorčević, J DeLaunay, A Tohuvavohu, R Caputo, SB Cenko et al.
(2023)
Gravitational-wave event rates as a new probe for dark matter microphysics
MR Mosbech, AC Jenkins, S Bose, C Boehm, M Sakellariadou, YYY Wong
– Physical Review D
(2023)
108,
043512
Open Data from the Third Observing Run of LIGO, Virgo, KAGRA, and GEO
R Abbott, H Abe, F Acernese, K Ackley, S Adhicary, N Adhikari, RX Adhikari, VK Adkins, VB Adya, C Affeldt, D Agarwal, M Agathos, OD Aguiar, L Aiello, A Ain, P Ajith, T Akutsu, S Albanesi, RA Alfaidi, A Al-Jodah, C Alléné, A Allocca, M Almualla, PA Altin, A Amato et al.
– The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
(2023)
267,
29
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Research Group

Relativity and Gravitation

Room

BL.33

Telephone

01223 765317