iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Phil Lynch

Dr Shanika Galaudage @astronerdika.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

OTD 11 years ago we discovered an event that birthed a whole new field of astronomy ✨ Happy Birthday #GW150914! 🥳 #GravitationalWaves #BlackHoles

Image of Figure 1 of the discovery paper showing an eight panel plot with 2 columns and 4 rows. Each row shows the observed gravitational wave signal over time, reconstructed signal against waveform template over time, the residual over time and frequency time graph showing the signal amplitude in colour map. Each column shows the signal observed in each of the LIGO detectors.

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Phil Lynch @physlynch.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

I just released my first python package on PyP! If you ever wanted to perform Chebyshev interpolation in multiple dimensions then you should use ChebyshevND 🧪 ⚛️ 🧮 pypi.org/project/Cheb...

Two python plots. The one on the right shows a continuous function f(x), the Chebyshev nodes it is sampled on and the smooth interpolant. The left plot shows the absolute difference between the original function and the interpolant which is on the order of 10 to the power of negative 9.

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Phil Lynch @physlynch.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Happy to announce my work on applying NITs to the dynamics of eccentric comparable mass black hole binaries is finally on the arxiv! I've been working on this project since I started my postdoc so I am delighted to finally get this over the line! arxiv.org/abs/2606.30594

arxiv.org

Efficient Eccentric Effective-One-Body Dynamics via Near-Identity Averaging Transformations

Next-generation gravitational-wave detectors, such as LISA, the Einstein Telescope, and Cosmic Explorer, will require accurate and efficient models of long-lived black-hole binary signals, including t...

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Peter Coles 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ 🇮🇪 @telescoper.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Here's an Open Letter about the new "strategy" from Research Ireland. You might consider signing it. #Speirgorm openletter.earth/concern-abou...

openletter.earth

Concern about Research Ireland’s Strategy and Programme Plan

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Astrobites @astrobites.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

From @laurie-amen.bsky.social: Did you know that many observed black holes theoretically shouldn’t exist? Today’s paper gathers gravitational wave evidence for how these impossible black holes might have formed. ⚛️ 🔭 ☄️ 🧪 astrobites.org/2026/05/09/many-mergers-might-fill-mass-gap/

astrobites.org

Many Mergers Might Fill the Mass Gap

Did you know that many observed black holes theoretically shouldn’t exist? Today’s paper gathers gravitational wave evidence for how these impossible black holes might have formed.

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Olly Long @hyperbolly.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

How much information can we gain by pushing numerical relativity to its limit by simulating black hole scattering encounters? My latest paper (below) explores these extreme regions of the black-hole scattering parameter space using simulations generated using the Spectral Einstein Code (SpEC).

arxiv.org

Black-hole scattering with numerical relativity: Self-force extraction and post-Minkowskian validation

The asymptotic nature of unbound binary-black-hole encounters provides a clean method for comparing different approaches for modeling the two-body problem in general relativity. In this work, we use n...

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Black Hole Perturbation Toolkit @bhptoolkit.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Three papers from the Multiscale Self-Force (MSF) collaboration on the arXiv yesterday that made use of the BHPToolkit. The first was "Spin-aligned inspiral waveforms from self-force and post-Newtonian theory" by Loïc Honet et al. arxiv.org/abs/2510.16112

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Event Horizon Telescope @ehtelescope.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

Groundbreaking new image! The EHT reveals the dynamic environment around black hole M87*. The 2021 image shows a distinct shift in polarization patterns, tracing changes in magnetic fields near the event horizon. eventhorizontelescope.org/new-eht-imag...

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Black Hole Perturbation Toolkit @bhptoolkit.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

Recent paper the cites the BHPToolkit: "Systematic errors in fast relativistic waveforms for Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals" by Hassan Khalvati, Philip Lynch, Ollie Burke, Lorenzo Speri, Maarten van de Meent, Zachary Nasipak, arxiv.org/abs/2509.08875

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Phil Lynch @physlynch.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

New paper on the arXiv today about systematic errors when modelling the gravitation waveform from extreme mass ratio inspirals and their impact on LISA data science Huge thanks to my collaborators, especially Hassan Khalvati, for getting this project over the line! 🧪⚛️🔭🧮 arxiv.org/abs/2509.08875

A posting on the arXiv preprint server.

Title: Systematic errors in fast relativistic waveforms for Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals

Authors: Hassan Khalvati, Philip Lynch, Ollie Burke, Lorenzo Speri, Maarten van de Meent, Zachary Nasipak

Abstract: Accurate modeling of Extreme Mass-Ratio Inspirals (EMRIs) is essential for extracting reliable information from future space-based gravitational wave observatories. Fast waveform generation frameworks adopt an offline/online architecture, where expensive relativistic computations (e.g. self-force and black hole perturbation theory) are performed offline, and waveforms are generated rapidly online via interpolation across a multidimensional parameter space. In this work, we investigate potential sources of error that result in systematic bias in these relativistic waveform models, focusing on radiation-reaction fluxes. Two key sources of systematics are identified: (i) the intrinsic inaccuracy of the flux data, for which we focus on the truncation of the multipolar mode sum, and (ii) interpolation errors from transitioning to the online stage. We quantify the impact of mode-sum truncation and analyze interpolation errors by using various grid structures and interpolation schemes. For circular orbits in Kerr spacetime with spins larger than a≥0.9, we find that ℓmax≥30 is required for the necessary accuracy. We also develop an efficient Chebyshev interpolation scheme, achieving the desired accuracy level with significantly fewer grid points compared to spline-based methods. For circular orbits in Kerr spacetimes, we demonstrate via Bayesian studies that interpolating the flux to a maximum global relative error that is equal to the small mass ratio is sufficient for parameter estimation purposes. For 4-year long quasi-circular EMRI signals with SNRs=O(100) and mass-ratios 10^−4−10^−6, a global relative error of 10−6 yields mismatches <10^−3 and negligible parameter estimation biases.

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Olly Long @hyperbolly.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

I’m incredibly proud to be part of this and to have my simulations turn into the first publicly available scattering and dynamical capture waveforms! Below is a plot I made for the Einstein Toolkit Blue Book (arXiv:2503.12263) showing the waveforms SXS:BBH:3999 (scatter) and SXS:BBH:4000 (capture).

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SXS Collaboration @sxs-collaboration.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

When simulating orbiting black holes, we move our grid with the holes! One of the key lessons of general relativity is coordinates are meaningless. We exploit this to choose comoving coordinates where the metric changes as little as possible. www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4WG... 🧪⚛️🔭

youtube.com

A visualization of the moving mesh in binary black hole merger inspiral simulation

YouTube video by SXS Collaboration

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LISA Community @lisacommunity.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

Welcome to the #LECSTalks! series, where we showcase the people, activity, and science taking place around the LISA Early Career Scientists community. 🎤 Today we feature Ben Leather, postdoctoral researcher at the MPI for Grav Physics, talking about Waveform Modelling with Gravitational Self-Force.

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EGO and the Virgo Collaboration @egovirgo.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

🍾The LIGO - Virgo - KAGRA Collaboration has announced the detection of the 200th candidate gravitational wave signal in this fourth observation period O4!

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astrafoxen @astrafoxen.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

I spent almost 2 hours painstakingly copying the orbits of all 128 Saturnian moons from the announcement MPEC and reformatting them for visualization... Behold, here are the orbits of ALL 128 MOONS OF SATURN. This isn't just a moon system—it's a literal asteroid belt around Saturn! 🧪🔭☄️

Saturn's outer moon system viewed from the north pole of Saturn. Moons orbiting in clockwise (retrograde) orbits have red-colored orbits while moons orbiting counterclockwise (prograde; in the direction of Saturn's spin) are colored blue. With so many irregular moons occupying the same region and intersecting each other, the irregular moon system looks like a donut-shaped vortex surrounding Saturn.

Each of the 128 new moons is highlighted in the diagram with a white point representing their location, and a brighter-colored orbit. Previously-known moons of Saturn are included in the diagram, but are colored darker.

The regular moons of Saturn are colored turquoise and the outermost regular moons (Titan, Hyperion, and Iapetus) labeled with their name.

At the lower left corner are scale indicators to help visualize the scale of Saturn's irregular moon system. A small gray circle at the left left corner is shown to represent the diameter of the Earth-Moon orbital distance. A linear scale bar is labeled "10 million km" (6.2 million mi) to give a standard distance.

View of Saturn's irregular moon system, tilted at an angle to show the toroidal belt-like shape of the system. Each moon is labeled with their names in turquioise. Red orbits = retrograde direction, and blue orbits = prograde direction. Turquoise curves closer to the center are orbits of Saturn's regular moons.

Side view of Saturn's irregular moon system, tilted at an angle to show the toroidal belt-like shape of the system. Red orbits = retrograde direction, and blue orbits = prograde direction. Turquoise curves closer to the center are orbits of Saturn's regular moons.

The irregular moons of Neptune (dark green) are also visible in the background to the right of Saturn. The horizontal red line protruding right of Saturn is the orbit path of Saturn.

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Eryn Cangi, PhD @planetaryemc2.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

I just don't know what else to say at this point except call your reps (5calls.org) and keep fighting. Do not ignore the chaos. Keeping your head down will not protect you 🔭 #PlanetaryScience #Exoplanets nasawatch.com/ask-the-admi...

nasawatch.com

The NASA RIF Has Begun

This was just sent to the NASA workforce:

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KateGraphics @kategraphics.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

The hardest part of creating a design? Posting it on social media, but anyway, here it is! Neutron stars are insanely dense,(teaspoon of neutron star would weight 4 billion tons on Earth). Some are pulsars, like beacons in space or/and magnetars! 🔭Store: kategraphiccreations.etsy.com #sciart

Neutron star poster, shown with geometric pulsars going out of it and a magnetic field, geometric, art deco, futuristic #sciart

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KateGraphics @kategraphics.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

"The team predicts that the two neutron stars will spiral slowly toward each other in a cosmic dance, ultimately colliding in a kilonova explosion." Inspired by @skuthunur.bsky.social article & thanks to @astro-jje.bsky.social for patiently answering all my silly binary star questions! #Sciart

Poster of two binary stars orbiting each other, it has elements that come from the merge of the two stars coming out, like Au,Ag,Th,Rh,Gd,Pu,Pd,Eu art deco style, minimalistic #Sciart

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Black Hole Perturbation Toolkit @bhptoolkit.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

The 🎉200th paper 🎉 that cites the BHPToolkit: "Lensing and wave optics in the strong field of a black hole" by Juno C. L. Chan, Conor Dyson, Matilde Garcia, Jaime Redondo-Yuste, Luka Vujeva, arxiv.org/abs/2502.14073

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Jake Postiglione @jakepost.tech · 18/02/2025

Ever wonder how gravitational wave detectors like LISA would hear the signal of binary black holes orbiting around a supermassive black hole? 🔭 Well check out my first 1st author paper investigating that very topic, live on the arXiv today! 🔥📄 arxiv.org/abs/2502.10591 Explainer in 🧵👇 1/10

arxiv.org

Evolution of LISA Observables for Binary Black Holes Lensed by an SMBH

Binary black holes (BBH) are expected to form and merge in active galactic nuclei (AGN), deep in the potential well of a supermassive black hole (SMBH), from populations that exist in a nuclear star c...

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Reposted by Phil Lynch

LIGO Scientific Collaboration @ligo.org · 11/02/2025

#February11 is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science #IDWGS. Meet some of our international #WomenInSTEM through #HumansOfLIGO 1/🧵

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Black Hole Perturbation Toolkit @bhptoolkit.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

A new major update to the Teukolsky package has been released (version 1.1.0). A major new feature the the ability to PN expand various Teukolsky radial functions (contribution from Jakob Neef)

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👻 Saavik ‘Spooky Season’ Ford 🎃 @saavikford.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

Ok doomscrollers, here is a HAPPY news story from Gizmodo about LISA, the gravitational wave observatory that will be launched by ESA, with NASA support, in the mid-2030s (I’m quoted, as are @jakepost.tech & Emanuele Berti). 🧪🔭⚛️

gizmodo.com

LISA: What the Revolutionary Gravitational Wave Observatory Will Actually See

LISA is set to revolutionize our understanding of the gravitational universe and the interactions that make the entire cosmos turn.

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Emily Hunt @emily.space · 04/02/2025

A very fascinating paper went up on the arXiv today! Jesse Han & El-Badry et al. reanalysed the 21 known 'hypervelocity' stars in the #milkyway. They find strong evidence that the LMC (Large Milky/Magellanic Cloud) has a supermassive black hole at its core! 🤯 arxiv.org/abs/2502.00102

A figure from the paper (Figure 4). It shows the locations of known hypervelocity stars as black circles, with the predicted overdensity that the LMC would cause shown in red. Full caption:

Predicted on-sky overdensity of hypervelocity stars originating from a 6 × 105M⊙ supermassive black hole in the
LMC. The black open circles denote the Galactic coordinates of hypervelocity stars detected in the HVS Survey, while the
grey-shaded regions mark areas excluded from the survey. The current position of the LMC is illustrated with a representative
image, and its orbital trajectory is drawn with a red arrow. The forward model incorporating an SMBH in the LMC along with
the selection effects of the HVS Survey predicts a prominent overdensity of HVS in the region enclosed by the red contours. The
overdensity arises because stars are boosted in the direction of the LMC’s orbit. This model accurately reproduces the observed
overdensity location, supporting the hypothesis of an SMBH in the LMC as a source of these stars.

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Markus Pössel @mpoessel.de · 25/01/2025

When things go well, preparing for a lecture is one of my happy places. I get to read, and understand better, stuff that I'm interested in. I get to make diagrams and animations, always fun. Here is an animation of the motion of a star in a disk galaxy for your viewing pleasure: 1/ 🧪🔭

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European Space Agency @esa.int · 09/01/2025

Hello @bsky.app, here's to looking into more #bluesky and beyond... 😉

Image of the Moon, on a background of the blackness of space, and foreground at right of Earth's atmosphere in shades of blue, taken by ESA astronaut André Kuipers from the ISS in 2012.

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Nihar Gupte @nihar-gupte.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

Woke up this morning to see the sad news of the Palisades and Eaton fires. I hope everyone, their families, and pets are ok. I can't imagine what kind of anxiety it is wondering if your home is ok or not :( Here's some info on the fires based on a project I was working on in 2019. 1/11

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depths of wikipedia @depthsofwikipedia.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

amazing terminology for the hypothetical moon of a moon

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Rhiannon Silva @rhiannonsilva.bsky.social · 01/01/2025

Happy birthday to “the most brilliant PhD thesis ever written in astronomy”! Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin completed her thesis on January 1st, 1925*. She found that stars are composed mainly of hydrogen and helium, counter to the idea of the time, that the Sun and Earth were made of similar materials.

Title page from the thesis:

HARVARD OBSERVATORY MONOGRAPHS

HARLOW SHAPLEY, EDITOR

No. 1

STELLAR ATMOSPHERES

A CONTRIBUTION TO THE OBSERVATIONAL
STUDY OF HIGH TEMPERATURE IN THE
REVERSING LAYERS OF STARS

BY

CECILIA H. PAYNE

PUBLISHED BỶ THE OBSERVATORY

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

1925

John G. Wolbach Library, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

A black and white photo of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin. Credit: Smithsonian Institution.

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Martin Bauer @martinmbauer.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

Could we tell whether anyone in our galaxy uses a warp drive? This sounds like a crazy question, but it can be answered using numerical GR (one of the fun highlights of the annual theory meeting presented by Katy Clough) 🧵1/7

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Phil Lynch @physlynch.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

Why is it when people dunk on how useless maths is, they always chose the quadratic formula and the Pythagorean theorem? As if these aren’t foundational and practical concepts you can learn at a highschool level

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Nihar Gupte @nihar-gupte.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

I visited #Tokyo, #Kyoto, #Osaka, #Nara and Mt. #Fuji for ~2 weeks. #Japan, is a cool place with amazing people! I do travel sketchbooking so I thought I would share my sketches. Usually, they’re scribbled at the sites in awkward positions, but the sketches feel way more organic that way.

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Black Hole Perturbation Toolkit @bhptoolkit.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Recent paper that cites the BHPToolkit: "Ringdown of a postinnermost stable circular orbit of a rapidly spinning black hole: Mass ratio dependence of higher harmonic quasinormal mode excitation" by Daiki Watarai, arxiv.org/abs/2408.167...

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Leo C. Stein @duetosymmetry.com · 11/12/2024

🎉New paper day🎉 A tale of tails! Finally resolved in fully nonlinear 3+1d numerical relativity with @sxs-collaboration.bsky.social simulations. Late-time tails in nonlinear evolutions of merging black holes De Amicis et al. arxiv.org/abs/2412.06887 What's it all about? 🧪⚛️🔭🧮 1/15

Screenshot of title/author list/abstract of the paper linked in post

$Figure 1 and caption from the paper. The horz axis is retarded time u after the peak, in units of M. The vertical axis is R|\dot{h}_{20}|/\nu, on a log scale. We see 4 curves, almost exactly on top of each other. Three are from NR simulations at q=1, 2, 3. The fourth is form perturbation theory. They all show an exponentially decaying ringing, followed by a power-law tail. An inset shows the "instantaneous power law index" for each curve, as a function of retarded time, all in rough agreement between -1.5 and -2.$

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Daniel Green @dangreen.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

Dec 8 - EFT / model building and the anomalous perihelion of mercury arxiv.org/abs/1106.1568 Wells explores how a model building / EFT approach to explaining Mercury's orbit would have worked. He introduces 3 ideas that all can work, and are realized in GR in different gauges.

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Olly Long @hyperbolly.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

(6/7) Outside of physics, I’m an avid climber with over 300 outdoor climbs across four countries (trad, sport, and bouldering). Here are my stats if you’re curious:

ukclimbing.com

UKC Logbook - Stats for ofl_23

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Olly Long @hyperbolly.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

(3/7) In 2022, I started my postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (AEI) in Potsdam, Germany. Here, I extended my work to include black hole scattering with comparable masses using Numerical Relativity as part of the @sxs-collaboration.bsky.social.

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Olly Long @hyperbolly.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

(2/7) I earned my MPhys in Physics from the University of Manchester (2018) and a PhD in Mathematical Sciences from the University of Southampton (2022). My PhD focused on using black hole perturbation theory to model small black holes scattering off supermassive black holes.

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Olly Long @hyperbolly.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

(1/7) As I’m new here I thought I should introduce myself! My name is Olly Long and I am a researcher working on modelling the binary black hole problem in General Relativity.

Artist’s impression of the horizons and curvature of a binary black hole system. Generated using Paraview.

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Leo C. Stein @duetosymmetry.com · 06/12/2024

"The patchwork of gravitational radiation research" Doodle opposite the introduction of the Proceedings of the 1982 Les Houches lectures, Eds. Nathalie Deruelle and Tsvi Piran. Apparently the art is due partly to Nathalie and partly to Philippe Tourrenc. 🧪⚛️🔭🧮

A doodle with a conformal diagram, with a Cauchy surface, world lines of merging black holes, a schematic bar detector and interferometer, with labels: Sources; approximation methods; Numerical Relativity; Cauchy problem; Null Infinity. There is also a little fellow in a bowler hat at the bottom left, looking perplexed at the conformal diagram.

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Kanaya Malakar @kanaya-malakar.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

I had a hard time finding women physicists here. So I made a starter pack for #female and #under-represended #minorities in #physics, in short #FURMIP. Please spread the word and let me know if you would like to be added. go.bsky.app/2JeYsDz

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SXS Collaboration @sxs-collaboration.bsky.social · 10/11/2024

Hello, new followers! This account will mostly post about new science from members of the SXS collaboration. Sometimes we make neat visualizations, too! Check out our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4Lw... 🧪⚛️🔭

youtube.com

Visualization of a black hole scattering and capture orbit

YouTube video by SXS Collaboration

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Olly Long @hyperbolly.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

Here is a visualisation of one of my Numerical Relativity simulations with @sxs-collaboration.bsky.social’s Spectral Einstein Code (SpEC). The initially unbound system loses enough energy at closest approach to become bound leading to a merger. It’s one of the coolest looking simulations I’ve done!

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CosmicRami 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @rami.spaceaustralia.com · 03/12/2024

MOAR EVIDENCE FOR THE GRAVITATIONAL WAVE BACKGROUND! Using MeerKAT (super sensitive telescope array) the MPTA team have also found supporting evidence (with their assumptions and models) of the GWB that other PTAs announced last year. This is further independent verification! The Universe rattles!

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Phil Lynch @physlynch.bsky.social · 30/11/2024

I model the gravitational waves that come from binary black holes where one is a supermassive black hole and the other is a much smaller (but still pretty huge) stellar mass black hole, known as Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals. As you can see, these things get pretty complicated 🧪⚛️🎢🔭🧮

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Seven Machina Rasmussen @toomanyspectra.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

attempting to collect #scicomm focused #physics and #astronomy accounts into one #starterpack! this list is by no means complete—if I've missed you, please just shoot me a DM. go.bsky.app/NvQERru

a blue background featuring seven faces of members of the starter pack

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Phil Lynch @physlynch.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

Proud to announce that I'm now at the point in my career that I'm not only being invited to publish in scam journals, but I'm also being invited to be an editor of a scam journal

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