Cheng Foo
Location Potsdam
Main Focus
My primary research focus revolves around theoretically modelling gravitational waves generated by binary black holes. Specifically, I investigate the impact of precession on gravitational-wave signals produced by compact binary systems, utilising the Effective-One-Body formalism. Precession arises when the spins of two black holes within the binary system are not aligned with the orbital angular momentum, causing the plane of orbit to precess, and introducing complexities in the modelling of the gravitational waveforms. As gravitational-wave detectors become more sensitive, it is increasingly important to develop more precise models in order to extract astrophysical information.
Curriculum Vitae
2017-2021: Undergraduate Degree (MPhysPhil) in Physics and Philosophy at
the University of Oxford, Trinity College, supported by the Jardine
Scholarship.
2021-2023: Master’s Degree in Physics at ETH Zürich (MSc
Physics).
For my master’s thesis, I looked at how systematic biases in
some waveform models could affect a test of General Relativity called
the IMR-consistency test, supervised by Dr. Eleanor Hamilton and Prof.
Philippe Jetzer. Prior to this, I worked on a semester project about
perturbations of a Kerr black hole embedded in background de Sitter
spacetime, supervised by Dr. Shubhanshu Tiwari and Prof. Jetzer.
In
September 2023, I joined the Astrophysical and Cosmological Relativity
department at the AEI, as a PhD student supervised by Prof. Alessandra
Buonanno.