Postdoctoral Research Scholarat Vanderbilt University
I am a postdoctoral research scholar in physics at Vanderbilt University. I develop numerical methods and high performance simulations to study matter in extreme environments, from high energy particle collisions to neutron stars. My research focuses on causal viscous hydrodynamics, which describes how fast moving fluids flow and dissipate energy while ensuring that physical effects do not travel faster than light. This includes the Bemfica, Disconzi, Noronha, and Kovtun formulation, known as BDNK. I apply these methods to the quark gluon plasma, an extremely hot state of matter created in particle collisions, and to relativistic astrophysical systems such as neutron stars.
In my earlier cosmology research, I used large scale simulations to study nonlinear, strongly interacting systems and processes in the early universe. This work explored how cosmic magnetic fields may have formed, electroweak phase transitions, topological defects, and the nonlinear dynamics of gauge fields.
Mathematical and numerical methods support simulations of viscous fluids, where internal friction affects the flow, at speeds where relativity matters. BDNK hydrodynamics provides a framework for modeling these fluids without allowing physical influences to travel faster than light.
Scalable simulation software is designed to run efficiently on modern CPUs and GPUs, across systems ranging from research workstations to large research supercomputers.
Coupling causal viscous hydrodynamics with magnetic and electromagnetic fields makes it possible to study how these fields influence relativistic fluids in extreme environments.
Adaptive mesh refinement adds computational detail where it is needed. Combined with numerical relativity, which simulates gravity and curved spacetime, it helps model systems with processes unfolding across many physical scales.
Applications include the quark gluon plasma, an extremely hot state of matter produced in heavy ion collisions, and relativistic flows around neutron stars and in strong gravitational fields.
I develop and maintain research software for my work in relativistic hydrodynamics, astrophysics, and cosmology, using parallel and GPU computing. Explore my code on GitHub, read my work on BDNK hydrodynamics and electroweak magnetogenesis, view research animations, or visit my teaching page.