William East

William East profile picture
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
Research Faculty
Areas of research:
Cosmology
Strong Gravity
(519) 569-7600 x6601
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/personal/weast/
If you are interested in pursuing a MSc degree, please apply to the Perimeter Scholars International (PSI) masters program. If you are interested in working with me as a PhD student, please submit an application directly to my department at the University of Waterloo and indicate that you would like to be supervised by me. Perimeter Institute is committed to diversity within its community and I welcome applications from underrepresented groups.
I work at the interface of gravitational physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. My research is primarily focused on understanding strong field gravity, using the tools of numerical relativity.
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Stanford University, 2013-2016
  • Computational Resources Grant for "Gravitational wave probes of new physics", Digital Research Alliance of Canada, 2022-2025
  • HQP Pooled Resources Grant, Arthur B. McDonald Institute, 2021-2023
  • Discovery Grant with Launch Supplement, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), 2019-2024
  • Computational Resources Grant for "Gravitational waves, multimessenger astronomy, and new vistas through gravity", Compute Canada, 2019-2022
  • 2019 Reader's Choice Top HPC-Enabled Scientific Achievement, HPC Wire, 2019
  • 2016 Jürgen Ehlers Thesis Prize, International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation, 2016
  • 2015 Nicholas Metropolis Award for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Work in Computational Physics, American Physical Society, 2015
  • Ray Grimm Memorial Prize in Computational Physics, Princeton University, 2013
  • May, T., East, W. E., & Siemonsen, N. (2024). Self-Gravity Effects of Ultralight Boson Clouds Formed by Black Hole Superradiance. doi:10.48550/arxiv.2410.21442
  • Corman, M., & East, W. E. (2024). Black hole-neutron star mergers in Einstein-scalar-Gauss-Bonnet gravity. Physical Review D, 110(8), 084065. doi:10.1103/physrevd.110.084065
  • May, T., Ma, S., Ripley, J. L., & East, W. E. (2024). Nonlinear effect of absorption on the ringdown of a spinning black hole. Physical Review D, 110(8), 084034. doi:10.1103/physrevd.110.084034
  • Corman, M., Lehner, L., East, W. E., & Dideron, G. (2024). Nonlinear studies of modifications to general relativity: Comparing different approaches. Physical Review D, 110(8), 084048. doi:10.1103/physrevd.110.084048
  • Corman, M., & East, W. E. (2024). Black hole-neutron star mergers in Einstein-scalar-Gauss-Bonnet gravity. arxiv:2405.18496v2
  • Corman, M., Lehner, L., East, W. E., & Dideron, G. (2024). Nonlinear studies of modifications to general relativity: Comparing different approaches. doi:10.48550/arxiv.2405.15581
  • Siemonsen, N., & East, W. E. (2023). Generic initial data for binary boson stars. Physical Review D, 108(12), 124015. doi:10.1103/physrevd.108.124015
  • East, W. E., & Siemonsen, N. (2023). Instability and backreaction of massive spin-2 fields around black holes. Physical Review D, 108(12), 124048. doi:10.1103/physrevd.108.124048
  • Corman, M., & East, W. E. (2023). Starting inflation from inhomogeneous initial conditions with momentum. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2023(10), 046. doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2023/10/046
  • Jones, D., Sun, L., Siemonsen, N., East, W. E., Scott, S. M., & Wette, K. (2023). Methods and prospects for gravitational-wave searches targeting ultralight vector-boson clouds around known black holes. Physical Review D, 108(6), 064001. doi:10.1103/physrevd.108.064001
  • Siemonsen, N., & East, W. E. (2023). Binary boson stars: Merger dynamics and formation of rotating remnant stars. Physical Review D, 107(12), 124018. doi:10.1103/physrevd.107.124018
  • Siemonsen, N., May, T., & East, W. E. (2023). Modeling the black hole superradiance gravitational waveform. Physical Review D, 107(10), 104003. doi:10.1103/physrevd.107.104003
  • Siemonsen, N., Mondino, C., Egaña-Ugrinovic, D., Huang, J., Baryakhtar, M., & East, W. E. (2023). Dark photon superradiance: Electrodynamics and multimessenger signals. Physical Review D, 107(7), 075025. doi:10.1103/physrevd.107.075025
  • Corman, M., Ripley, J. L., & East, W. E. (2023). Nonlinear studies of binary black hole mergers in Einstein-scalar-Gauss-Bonnet gravity. Physical Review D, 107(2), 024014. doi:10.1103/physrevd.107.024014
  • East, W. E., & Huang, J. (n.d.). Dark photon vortex formation and dynamics. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2022(12), 89. doi:10.1007/jhep12(2022)089
  • East, W. E., & Pretorius, F. (2022). Binary neutron star mergers in Einstein-scalar-Gauss-Bonnet gravity. Physical Review D, 106(10), 104055. doi:10.1103/physrevd.106.104055
  • East, W., Siemonsen, N., & May, T. (2022). superrad [Computer Software]. http://www.bitbucket.org/weast/superrad
  • East, W. E. (2022). Vortex String Formation in Black Hole Superradiance of a Dark Photon with the Higgs Mechanism. Physical Review Letters, 129(14), 141103. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.129.141103
  • Corman, M., East, W. E., & Ripley, J. L. (2022). Evolution of black holes through a nonsingular cosmological bounce. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2022(09), 063. doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2022/09/063
  • Whittaker, T., East, W. E., Green, S. R., Lehner, L., & Yang, H. (2022). Using machine learning to parametrize postmerger signals from binary neutron stars. Physical Review D, 105(12), 124021. doi:10.1103/physrevd.105.124021
  • Sberna, L., Bosch, P., East, W. E., Green, S. R., & Lehner, L. (2022). Nonlinear effects in the black hole ringdown: Absorption-induced mode excitation. Physical Review D, 105(6), 064046. doi:10.1103/physrevd.105.064046
  • Baryakhtar, M., Caputo, R., Croon, D., Perez, K., Berti, E., Bramante, J., . . . Zhang, J. (2022). Dark Matter In Extreme Astrophysical Environments. arxiv:2203.07984v3
  • Kalogera, V., Sathyaprakash, B. S., Bailes, M., Bizouard, M. -A., Buonanno, A., Burrows, A., . . . Brand, J. V. D. (2021). The Next Generation Global Gravitational Wave Observatory: The Science Book. arxiv:2111.06990v1
  • East, W. E., & Ripley, J. L. (2021). Dynamics of Spontaneous Black Hole Scalarization and Mergers in Einstein-Scalar-Gauss-Bonnet Gravity. Physical Review Letters, 127(10), 101102. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.127.101102
  • Corman, M., East, W. E., & Johnson, M. C. (2021). Nonlinear dynamics of flux compactification. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2021(9), 21. doi:10.1007/jhep09(2021)021
  • East, W. E., Lehner, L., Liebling, S. L., & Palenzuela, C. (2021). Multimessenger Signals from Black Hole–Neutron Star Mergers without Significant Tidal Disruption. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 912(1), l18. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/abf566
  • Tsukada, L., Brito, R., East, W. E., & Siemonsen, N. (2021). Modeling and searching for a stochastic gravitational-wave background from ultralight vector bosons. Physical Review D, 103(8), 083005. doi:10.1103/physrevd.103.083005
  • Zhang, T., Smetana, J., Chen, Y., Bentley, J., Martynov, D., Miao, H., . . . Yang, H. (2021). Toward observing neutron star collapse with gravitational wave detectors. Physical Review D, 103(4), 044063. doi:10.1103/physrevd.103.044063
  • East, W. E., & Ripley, J. L. (2021). Evolution of Einstein-scalar-Gauss-Bonnet gravity using a modified harmonic formulation. Physical Review D, 103(4), 044040. doi:10.1103/physrevd.103.044040
  • Siemonsen, N., & East, W. E. (2021). Stability of rotating scalar boson stars with nonlinear interactions. Physical Review D, 103(4), 044022. doi:10.1103/physrevd.103.044022
  • Mergers of black holes and neutron stars beyond Einstein, Searching for New Particles using Gravitational Waves, Kyoto University, Physics, Kyoto, Japan, 2024/08/06
  • Uncovering the signatures of black hole superradiance, New Horizons for Psi Workshop, University of Lisbon, Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon, Portugal, 2024/07/03
  • New views from extreme gravity, McMaster University, Physics and Astronomy, Hamilton, Canada, 2024/04/10
  • New perspectives from extreme gravity, Princeton University, Physics, Princeton, New Jersey, United States, 2024/03/07
  • Strong Gravity Probes of the Dark Side, Amaldi15, 2023/07/15
  • Vortex Formation in Dark Photons, Ending Inflation and the Hot Big Bang, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, United States, 2023/06/05
  • Black hole and neutron star mergers beyond Einstein, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, Potsdam, Germany, 2022/12/06
  • Dark Matter, Physics and Astrophysics at the eXtreme 2022, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, United States, 2022/08/02
  • Predicting Strong Gravity Signatures of New Physics, New Frontiers in Strong Gravity, Centro de Ciencias de Benasque, 2022/07/12
  • Progress in Numerical Relativity, 23rd International Conference of General Relativity and Gravitation, 2022/07/07
  • Cosmic Censorship, Black Holes, and Backreaction: Adventures in the Collapse of Collisionless Matter, Mathematical Perspectives of Gravitation beyond the Vacuum Regime Workshop, Erwin Schrödinger International Institute, 2022/02/11