Black holes from the perspective of particle physics

Gustav Mogull receives the Karl Scheel Prize of the Physikalische Gesellschaft zu Berlin, endowed with 5,000 euros

Gustav Mogull, a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute/AEI) in Potsdam and at Humboldt University in Berlin, investigates mathematical methods and models of particle physics for a more precise prediction of gravitational waves. The award recognizes his outstanding contributions to general relativity and gravitational-wave physics. He will receive the award today at the Magnus House of the German Physical Society in Berlin.

Since the first measurement of gravitational waves in 2015, a new field of research has emerged to study black holes and neutron stars and to test general relativity in the realm of very strong gravitational fields. In order to assign the detected signals to specific astrophysical events, such as mergers of black holes and neutron stars, scientists must make precise predictions of the waveforms. They then use these waveform templates to search for signals in the detector data.

“We have to solve the two-body problem analytically within the framework of general relativity. Numerical simulations of merging black holes and neutron stars are very accurate, but we can only perform them for selected cases due to the enormous computational effort involved,” explains Mogull. Together with Jan Plefka, professor at the Humboldt University in Berlin, Jan Steinhoff, groupleader in the Astrophysical and Cosmological Relativity Department at the AEI, and collaborators, he has developed a new theoretical framework to calculate the relativistic two-body problem and accurately predict the waveforms.

The scientists use methods from particle physics: black holes and neutron stars are interpreted as particle excitations of quantum fields. With their new method, the Worldline Quantum Field Theory (WQFT), Mogull was able to derive important physical observables for the dynamics of black holes and neutron stars. Today's award recognizes Mogull's work on the two-body problem, which is important for understanding gravitational waves and for future high-precision tests of general relativity. His results are being used to model gravitational-wave signals for data analysis in current and future experiments. In particular, a model, recently developed with Alessandra Buonanno, director at the AEI, and collaborators, utilizes Mogull’s WQFT-based results in order to construct a complete waveform, covering the inspiral, the merger and the ringdown of a coalescing compact binary.

The Awardee

Gustav Mogull studied Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Cambridge and received his Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh in 2017. After a postdoctoral stay in Uppsala (Sweden), he has been a researcher in Alessandra Buonanno's Astrophysical and Cosmological Relativity Department at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam and in the DFG Research Training Group “Rethinking Quantum Field Theory” at the Humboldt University in Berlin.

Karl Scheel Prize

The Karl Scheel Prize is the most important award of the Physikalische Gesellschaft zu Berlin, a local section of the German Physical Society. It has been awarded since 1958 to young scientists in Berlin and Brandenburg for outstanding scientific work. Recipients receive the Karl Scheel Medal and 5,000 euros.