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

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

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., & 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. 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

Seminars

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
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