Black Hole Phenomenology Group

• Dr. Jens Boos (group leader and Young Investigator Group Preparation Program Fellow; inspire & personal website)
• Dr. Christoph Borschensky (postdoc; inspire)
• B.Sc. Hao Hu (master student; inspire)

Broadly speaking, we are interested in connecting black hole phenomenology (signals that are observed in connection with black holes in the optical and gravitational wave domain) to models of new physics (new particles, new classes of gravitational theories, UV completions of gravity). Our particular focus lies on analytical methods. Here are our main research directions:

• Non-singular black hole models are ad hoc modifications of well-known black hole solutions of general relativity that are devoid of singularities. We study a certain class of these models with a particular focus on the light propagation in such spacetimes.
• Strong first-order phase transitions in the Early Universe, and their gravitational wave signals, are an increasingly interesting subject to probe both for beyond-the-standard-model physics as well as for properties of spacetime in the Early Universe. We explore analytical models describing such processes, including their gravitational wave responses.
• Post-Riemannian gravity is an umbrella term for modified gravity theories that—besides the curvature of spacetime—introduce additional geometric fields to describe gravitation in interaction with matter systems including spin and other currents. We focus on how such theories affect orbital dynamics around black holes with non-trivial post-Riemannian profiles, with applications for extreme mass-ratio inspiral gravitational wave signals.

If you are interested in pursuing a Bachelor thesis in my group, please contact me. For the time being, I will not be able to supervise Master and PhD theses.