Ultralight dark matter could potentially speed up supermassive black hole mergers.
Self Gravitating Quantum Matter
“Quantum matter” – nonrelativistic matter which is described by a wave function and which responds to its own gravitational potential – is a major focus for the Auckland group. In particular, this can arise in two very different contexts in the evolving universe. The first is the era immediately after the inflationary phase in the trillionth of a second following the big bang and the second is the present-day in scenarios with ultralight dark matter.
The Auckland group and its collaborators have played a key role in exploring the parallels between these eras and building numerical tools to simulate their dynamics.
[Research content below.]
Black Hole Plunges in Solitons
Simulating the dynamical friction experienced by a black hole making a radial plunge through a soliton.
Postinflationary Structure Formation After Resonance
First-of-their-kind simulations that follow the resonant phase through to the gravitational collapse of the inflaton field.
Multifield Ultralight Dark Matter
"Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error...
Realistic Ultralight Dark Matter Halos
Realistic aspherical initial conditions for ultralight dark matter solitons.