2019 Theses

Ph.D. Student Advisor Title
Henry S. Grasshorn Gebhardt Donghui Jeong In pursuit of optimal clustering analysis with emission line surveys

ETD
Shintaro Nishikawa Nigel Higson Direct splitting method for the Baum-Connes conjecture and groups acting on CAT(0)-cubical spaces

ETD
Angel Roman Nigel Higson Mackey bijection for some reductive groups and continuous fields of reduced C*-algebras

ETD
Matthew Rosenberg Miguel Mostafa A Search for Very High Energy Photons from Gamma-Ray Bursts with the High Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory

ETD
Monica Seglar-Arroyo Miguel Mostafa Searching for the origin of extragalactic cosmic rays: Multi-messenger studies with VHE gamma-ray instruments

ETD
Guang Yang Neil Brandt What drives the growth of black holes?

ETD

2018 Theses

Ph.D. Student Advisor Title
Bekir Baytas Sarah Shandera Correlations in Quantum Gravity and Cosmology

ETD
Anne-Sylvie Deutsch Sarah Shandera Cosmic Variance in Cosmology: From Inflation to Today’s Largest Scales

ETD
Lucas Hackl Eugenio Bianchi Aspects of Gaussian States: Entanglement, Squeezing and Complexity

ETD
Moupiya Maji Yuexing Li Illuminating the Star Clusters and Dwarf Galaxies by Multi-scale Baryonic Simulations

ETD

2017 Theses

Ph.D. Student Advisor Title
Beatrice Bonga Abhay Ashtekar Gravitational Radiation with a Positive Cosmological Constant

ETD
Joanna Bridge Caryl Gronwall Using Emission Lines to Characterize Galaxy Properties: From the Nearby to the Distant Universe

ETD
Umut Buyukcam Martin Bojowald Application of Canonical Effective Methods to Background-Independent Theories

ETD
Alex Hagen Robin Ciardullo A Study in Lyman-alpha

ETD
Lea Hagen Caryl Gronwall Swift/UVOT Observations in Star Formation and Dust Attenuation in both Local and High Redshift Galaxies

ETD
Nicholas Senno Peter Meszaros Towards an Understanding of the Source of Very-High-Energy Astrophysical Neutrinos

ETD

2016 Theses

Ph.D. Student Advisor Title
Saroj Adhikari Sarah Shandera Effects of Primordial non-Gaussianity in the CMB and the Large Scale Structure

ETD
Aruna Kesavan Abhay Ashtekar Asymptotic Structure of Space-Time with a Positive Cosmological Constant

ETD
Ehssan Khanmohammadi Nigel Higson Quantization of Coadjoint Orbits via Positivity of Kirillov’s Character Formula

ETD
Qirong Zhu Yuexing Li Formation of Disk Galaxies in CDM Using Particle-Based Hydrodynamics

ETD

2015 Theses

Ph.D. Student Advisor Title
Pichkitti Bannangkoon Nigel Higson C*-algebras in Kirillov Theory

ETD
Suddhasattwa Brahma Martin Bojowald Effective Methods for Quantum Theories

ETD
Matthew Dunkman Tyce DeYoung Measurement of Atmospheric Muon Neutrino Disappearance with IceCube-DeepCore

ETD
Karan Govil Murat Gunaydin Algebraic Aspects of Higher Spin Symmetry

ETD
David Hollander Irina Mocioiu Flavor Oscillations with Sterile Neutrinos and In Dense Neutrino Environments

ETD
Elliot Nelson Sarah Shandera Non-gaussian Statistics as a Probe of the Early Universe

ETD
Guangzhong Peng Nigel Higson Quantization of Affine Coadjoint Orbits

ETD
Kathryn Sparks Woodle Tyce DeYoung A Likelihood Search for Very High-Energy Gamma-Ray Bursts with the High Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory

ETD
Mouyuan Sun

ETD
Warren Wright Irina Mocioiu The Phenomenology of Non-standard Neutrino Interactions at Large Neutrino Detectors

ETD

2014 Theses

Ph.D. Student Advisor Title
Olaf Engelund Radu Roiban New Applications of On-Shell Methods in Quantum Field Theory

ETD
Shan Gao Peter Meszaros High Energy Neutrinos from Gamma-ray Bursts: Recent Observations and Models

ETD
Qingjun Jin Radu Roiban Conformal Deformations of N=4 Sym

ETD

2013 Theses

Ph.D. Student Advisor Title
Tyler Anderson Stephane Coutu Exploring the Cosmic Ray Spectrum with the CREAM Experiment

ETD
Shih-ho Cheng Paul Sommers A Search for Ultra-High Energy Neutron Point Sources with the AUGER Surface Detector

ETD
Ryan McKeown Radu Roiban Perturbative and Non-Perturbative Approaches to the Quantum Ads5xs5 Superstring

ETD
George Paily Martin Bojowald Deformed General Relativity and Effective Actions in Quantum Gravity

ETD
David Simpson Martin Bojowald Effective Equations of Cosmological Models in (loop) Quantum Gravity

ETD
Casey Tomlin Martin Bojowald The Quantum Constraint Algebra in Toy Models of Canonical Gravity

ETD

2012 Theses

Ph.D. Student Advisor Title
Miguel Campiglia Abhay Ashtekar Topics in Black Holes and Quantum Cosmology

ETD
Adrienne Criss Paul Sommers Atmospheric Effects on Events Measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory Surface Detector

ETD

2011 Theses

Ph.D. Student Advisor Title
Gerardo Giordano Irina Mocioiu Neutrino Flavor Oscillations in the IceCube DeepCore Array

ETD
Adam Henderson Abhay Ashtekar Loop Quantum Cosmology: A Window into the Path Integral Representation of Quanum Gravity

ETD
Nathan Johnson-McDaniel Ben Owen Gravitational Waves and the Deformation of Compact Objects: Topics in Relativistic Astrophysics

ETD
Douglas Rutledge Doug Cowen A Search for Neutrino-Induced Electromagnetic Showers in the 2008 Combined IceCube and AMANDA Detectors

ETD
Artur Tsobanjan Martin Bojowald Semiclassical Analysis of Quantum Systems with Constraints

ETD
Edward Wilson-Ewing Abhay Ashtekar Loop Quantum Cosmology: Anisotropies and Inhomogeneities

ETD

2010 Theses


Ph.D. Student Advisor Title
David Sloan Abhay Ashtekar Loop Quantum Cosmology and the Early Universe

ETD
Deepak Vaid Stephon Alexander The Cosmological Constant Problem and Many Body Physics: An Investigation

ETD

2009 Theses

Ph.D. Student Advisor Title
Tanja Bode Deirdre Shoemaker The Robustness of Binary Black Hole Mergers and Waveforms

ETD
Jim Healy Pablo Laguna The Final State from Generic Binary Black Hole Coalescence: Mass, Spin and Gravitational Recoil

ETD
Juan Reyes Martin Bojowald Spherically Symmetric Loop Quantum Gravity: Connections to Two-Dimensional Models and Applications to Gravitational Collapse

ETD
Victor Taveras Abhay Ashtekar Loop Gravity: An Application and an Extension

ETD
Shaun Wood Pablo Laguna Curvature Scalar Diagnostics and Progress on a Chern-Simons Initial Value Formulation

ETD

2008 Theses

Ph.D. Student Advisor Title
Eloisa Bentivegna Deirdre Shoemaker Ringing in Unison: Exploring Black Hole Coalescence with Quasinormal Modes

ETD
Mikhail Kagan Martin Bojowald Quantum Cosmology and Structure Formation in the Universe

ETD
Birjoo Vaishnav Deirdre Shoemaker Gravitational Waves from Intermediate Mass Binary Black Holes: First Steps Toward Using Numerical Relativity Waveforms for LIGO Data Analysis

ETD
Nicolas Yunes Ben Owen At The Interface: Gravitational Waves as Tools to Test Quantum Gravity and Probe the Astrophysical Universe

ETD

2007 Theses

Ph.D. Student Advisor Title
Abraham Harte Pablo Laguna Mechanics of Isolated Extended Bodies in Classical Field Theories

ETD
Mohit Nayyar Ben Owen Periodic Gravitational Radiation from Neutron Stars with Exotic Matter

ETD

2006 Theses

Ph.D. Student Advisor Title
Jonathan Engle Abhay Ashtekar Black Hole Entropy, Constraints, and Symmetry in Quantum Gravity
PDF, ETD
Amber Stuver Sam Finn Burst Gravitational Wave Data Analysis Methods: Design, Development and Comparison

ETD
Tiffany Summerscales Sam Finn Gravitational Wave Astronomy with LIGO: From Data to Science

ETD
Kevin Vandersloot Abhay Ashtekar Loop Quantum Cosmology

PDF, ETD
David Whitbeck Ben Owen Observational Consequences of Gravitational Wave Emission from Spinning Compact Sources

ETD

2005 Theses

Ph.D. Student Advisor Title
Chris Van Den Broeck Abhay Ashtekar Black Holes and Neutron Stars: Fundamental and Phenomenological Issues

PDF, ETD

2004 Theses

Ph.D. Student Advisor Title
Josh Willis Abhay Ashtekar On the Low-Energy Ramifications and a Mathematical Extension of Loop Quantum Gravity

PDF, ETD
Bernard Kelly Pablo Laguna The Next Generation of Binary Black Hole Head-On Collisions, and their Aftermath
PDF, ETD
Kenneth Smith Pablo Laguna Dynamic Singularity Excision in Numerical Relativity
PDF, ETD

2002 Theses

Ph.D. Student Advisor Title
David Garrison Jorge Pullin, Pablo Laguna Testing Binary Black Hole Codes in Strong Field Regimes
PDF, ETD
site
Badri Krishnan Abhay Ashtekar Isolated Horizons in Numerical Relativity
PDF, ETD
site
Yi Ling Lee Smolin Extending Loop Quantum Gravity to Supergravity
PDF
Jacek Wisniewski Abhay Ashtekar 2+1 General Relativity: Classical and Quantum
PDF, ETD
site

2001 Theses

Ph.D. Student Advisor Title
Ramon Lopez-Aleman Jorge Pullin Evolving Particle Trajectories
Perturbatively around Rotating Black Holes in the Time
Domain

PDF, ETD
site
Stephen Fairhurst Abhay Ashtekar Isolated horizons and distorted black
holes

Postscript, PDF, ETD
site
Olaf Dreyer Abhay Ashtekar Isolated
Horizons and Black Hole Entropy

Postscript, PDF, ETD
site

2000 Theses

Ph.D. Student Advisor Title
Chris Beetle Abhay Ashtekar Isolated
Horizons and Black Hole Mechanics

Postscript, PDF
Dan Cartin Lee Smolin Self-regulated
Models of Str Formation in Flocculent Galaxies

Postscript, PDF
Sameer Gupta Lee Smolin not available
Gaurav Khanna Jorge Pullin Black Hole
Coalescence: the Close Limit

Postscript, PDF

1999 Theses

Ph.D. Student Advisor Title
Kirill Krasnov Abhay Ashtekar Postscript, PDF
Eli Hawkins Lee Smolin Perturbative
Noncommutative Regularization

Postscript &
PDF

1997 Theses

Ph.D. Student Advisor Title
Alejandro Corichi Abhay Ashtekar Interplay Between Topology, Gauge Fields And
Gravity

Postscript, PDF
Seth Major Lee Smolin q-Quantum Gravity
Postscript, PDF
Nuno Dias Jorge Pullin The Dynamics Of
Quantum Gravity: A Proposal

1996 Theses

Ph.D. Student Advisor Title
Monica Pierri Abhay Ashtekar Probing
Quantum General Relativity Through Exactly Soluble
Midi-Superspaces
Troy Schilling Abhay Ashtekar Geometry Of
Quantum Mechanics

Postscript, PDF

About our wordmark
Monica The IGC wordmark was created by Monica Rincon Ramirez, while she was a graduate student at the Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos (IGC). Monica enjoys drawing new connections between fundamental theory and observations. Her graduate work includes specialized topics in general relativity, loop quantum gravity, and quantum fields in cosmological backgrounds. In particular, her thesis work focused on finding effective quantum corrections to gravitational phenomena from spinfoams, and applications to cosmology. She received her PhD in 2024.

The wordmark symbolizes the scope and variety of research at the IGC. The base of the image represents quantum gravity, evoking the quantum geometrical picture from spinfoams and loop quantum gravity. These are among the approaches to fundamental questions studied at the Center for Fundamental Theory. The middle of the image represents the Center for Theoretical and Observational Cosmology by galaxies embedded in a smooth surface, characteristic of spacetime in general relativity and the much larger physical scales studied in cosmology. Finally, at the top, the surface curves to an extreme, representing a supermassive black hole accompanied by an energetic jet. These elements depict an active galactic nucleus, inspired by Centaurus A. Just to the right, a pair of black holes approaches merger. This top portion of the wordmark represents the Center for Multimessenger Astrophysics, which specializes in the study of high-energy phenomena in the universe.