Research

Gravitational wave astronomy is a new and rapidly expanding branch of the field since the first direct detection of a black hole merger in 2015 by the LIGO/Virgo collaboration. This date being just before the start of my PhD in 2017, it was therefore quite natural that I began my research career in this area. Gravitational waves bring new techniques and new observables to the field, but also, more radically, a new way of thinking about astronomy. Precise statistics on black hole populations, whether stellar-mass or supermassive, will allow us to better understand their origin and evolution throughout the history of the universe.

In order to extract astrophysical parameters from gravitational wave data (for example, the mass of supermassive black holes, which is very difficult to measure precisely using only electromagnetic signals), it is necessary to know the theoretical signals with high accuracy. Indeed, the slightest modeling error can introduce systematic biases in parameter estimation and thus distort the values of the astrophysical parameters extracted from the data. This theoretical modeling requires solving Einstein's equations for binary systems, whether using numerical or analytical methods.

My research therefore has the general objective of studying relativistic dynamics and the emission of gravitational waves in two- or three-body systems in General Relativity and in some of its alternatives. My work primarily aims to improve our understanding of gravitational wave signals for use by future interferometers such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), Einstein Telescope (ET), and Cosmic Explorer (CE). Indeed, the improved sensitivity of these future detectors will allow us to observe gravitational waves with a high signal-to-noise ratio: it will then become essential to accurately model small, currently unobservable effects in order to maximize the scientific return from these instruments. The gravitational wave community agrees that these small effects may arise from deviations from the theory of General Relativity, from nonlinear corrections to currently neglected waveforms, or from the influence of the astrophysical environment (such as accretion disks or nearby objects) on gravitational wave emission. I'm interested in modeling these three types of effects in the waveforms.

Publications

See my updated publication list on my CV

Talks

Miscellaneous