William East | Perimeter Institute

Teaching Affiliations

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.

Research Interests

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.

Positions Held

Postdoctoral Fellow, Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Stanford University, 2013-2016

Awards

Outstanding Referee, American Physical Society, 2026
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

Recent Publications

Corman, M., East, W. E., & Read, J. S. (2026). Binary neutron star mergers with a subsolar mass star. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2603.25102
Collaboration, T. L. I. G. O. S., Collaboration, T. V., Collaboration, T. K. A. G. R. A., Abac, A. G., Abouelfettouh, I., Acernese, F., . . . Zweizig, J. (2026). GWTC-4.0: Tests of General Relativity. I. Overview and General Tests. https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.19019v1
Collaboration, T. L. I. G. O. S., Collaboration, T. V., Collaboration, T. K. A. G. R. A., Abac, A. G., Abouelfettouh, I., Acernese, F., . . . Zweizig, J. (2026). GWTC-4.0: Tests of General Relativity. II. Parameterized Tests. https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.19020v1
Anonymous. (2026). Gravitational collapse in the vicinity of the extremal black hole critical point. Physical Review Letters. doi:10.1103/2myd-cfwh
Evstafyeva, T., Siemonsen, N., & East, W. E. (2026). Assessing the stability of ultracompact spinning boson stars with nonlinear evolutions. Physical Review D, 113(4), 044024. doi:10.1103/2vz3-s39r
Abac, A. G., Abouelfettouh, I., Acernese, F., Ackley, K., Adamcewicz, C., Adhicary, S., . . . Zweizig, J. (2026). Black Hole Spectroscopy and Tests of General Relativity with GW250114. Physical Review Letters, 136(4), 041403. doi:10.1103/6c61-fm1n
Aswathi, P. S., East, W. E., Siemonsen, N., Sun, L., & Jones, D. (2025). Ultralight boson constraints from gravitational wave observations of spinning binary black holes. Physical Review D, 112(12), 123048. doi:10.1103/n5hr-zljn
Siemonsen, N., & East, W. E. (2025). Nonlinear evolution of the ergoregion instability: Turbulence, bursts of radiation, and black hole formation. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2512.10526
East, W. (2025). Gravitational collapse in the vicinity of the extremal black hole critical point. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2511.20567
Krishnendu, N. V., Evstafyeva, T., Vijaykumar, A., & East, W. E. (2025). Implications of GW241011 for rotating exotic compact objects. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2511.17341
Abac, A. G., Abouelfettouh, I., Acernese, F., Ackley, K., Adamcewicz, C., Adhicary, S., . . . Collaboration, A. T. K. C. T. L. S. C. T. V. (2025). GW241011 and GW241110: Exploring Binary Formation and Fundamental Physics with Asymmetric, High-spin Black Hole Coalescences. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 993(1), l21. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ae0d54
May, T., & East, W. E. (2025). Nonlinear evolution of the spin-2 black hole superradiant instability. doi:10.48550/arxiv.2509.13488
Collaboration, T. L. I. G. O. S., Collaboration, T. V., Collaboration, T. K. A. G. R. A., Abac, A. G., Abouelfettouh, I., Acernese, F., . . . Zweizig, J. (2025). Directed searches for gravitational waves from ultralight vector boson clouds around merger remnant and galactic black holes during the first part of the fourth LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA observing run. https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.07352v2
Evstafyeva, T., Siemonsen, N., & East, W. (2025). Assessing the stability of ultracompact spinning boson stars with nonlinear evolutions. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2508.11527
Aswathi, P. S., East, W. E., Siemonsen, N., Sun, L., & Jones, D. (2025). Ultralight boson constraints from gravitational wave observations of spinning binary black holes. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2507.20979
Mirasola, L., Mondino, C., Amicucci, F., Siemonsen, N., Palomba, C., D’Antonio, S., . . . East, W. E. (2025). Search for continuous gravitational wave signals from luminous dark photon superradiance clouds with LVK O3 observations. Physical Review D, 111(8), 084032. doi:10.1103/physrevd.111.084032
Jones, D., Siemonsen, N., Sun, L., East, W. E., Miller, A. L., Wette, K., & Piccinni, O. J. (2025). Methodology for constraining ultralight vector bosons with gravitational wave searches targeting merger remnant black holes. Physical Review D, 111(6), 063028. doi:10.1103/physrevd.111.063028
May, T., East, W. E., & Siemonsen, N. (2025). Self-gravity effects of ultralight boson clouds formed by black hole superradiance. Physical Review D, 111(4), 044062. doi:10.1103/physrevd.111.044062
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
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. Physical Review D, 110(8), 084065. doi:10.1103/physrevd.110.084065
Corman, M., & East, W. E. (2024). Black hole-neutron star mergers in Einstein-scalar-Gauss-Bonnet gravity. https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.18496v2
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

Seminars

On the razor's edge: Instabilities of black holes and other ultracompact objects, Institute for Advanced Study and Princeton University Joint Astrophysics Colloquium, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, United States, 2025/09/30
Nonlinear corrections to black hole ringdown, 24th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation, International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation, Glasgow, UK, 2025/07/15
Exploring new realms of extreme gravity and matter with numerical relativity, Gregynog Numerical Relativity 2025, Gregynog Hall, Wales, UK, 2025/06/17
Unveiling ultralight bosons through black hole superradiance, Fundamental physics and gravitational wave detectors, Castello dei Principi Capano, Pollica, Italy, 2024/09/18
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