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Samarth Khandelwal

Samarth Khandelwal — Mr. — Undergraduate Student
Office: 323 Whitmore Laboratory
Address: 104 Davey Lab, University Park, 16802
smk6968@psu.edu
N/A
Samarth Khandelwal
Math Physics Black Holes Loop Quantum Gravity Mathematical Structures CFT IGC

I am currently a B.S./M.S. in the class of 2026. I am broadly interested in the mathematical structure of classical and quantum gravity. Currently, I am working with professor Ashtekar on understanding the asymptotic structure of spacetime, specifically related to symmetries, fluxes, and charges at the null asymptote of general relativity.

Apart from physics, I also enjoy reading philosophy texts, running, and solving rubiks cubes.

About our wordmark
Monica Rincon Ramirez

The IGC wordmark was created by Monica Rincon Ramirez while she was a graduate student at the Institute. Monica enjoys drawing new connections between fundamental theory and observations. Her graduate work included general relativity, loop quantum gravity, and quantum fields in cosmological backgrounds; her thesis focused on effective quantum corrections to gravitational phenomena from spinfoams and applications to cosmology. She received her PhD in 2024.

The wordmark symbolizes the scope of research at the IGC. The base represents quantum gravity, evoking the quantum geometrical picture from spinfoams and loop quantum gravity — approaches studied at the Center for Fundamental Theory. The middle shows galaxies embedded in a smooth surface characteristic of spacetime in general relativity and the larger physical scales studied at the Center for Theoretical and Observational Cosmology. The top curves to an extreme representing a supermassive black hole accompanied by an energetic jet, with a binary black hole pair nearby — the high-energy phenomena studied at the Center for Multimessenger Astrophysics.