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/

Information for Prospective Students
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
  • Abac, A. G., Abouelfettouh, I., Acernese, F., Ackley, K., Adamcewicz, C., Adhicary, S., . . . Zweizig, J. (2026). 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. Physical Review D, 114(2), 022006. doi:10.1103/mjfs-m6t7
  • East, W. E. (2026). Gravitational Collapse in the Vicinity of the Extremal Black Hole Critical Point. Physical Review Letters, 136(15), 151401. 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
  • 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/2603.19020v2
  • Corman, M., East, W. E., & Read, J. S. (2026). Binary neutron star mergers with a subsolar mass star. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2603.25102
  • May, T., & East, W. E. (2025). Nonlinear evolution of the spin-2 black hole superradiant instability. doi:10.48550/arxiv.2509.13488
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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/2509.07352v3
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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., & 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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., Lehner, L., East, W. E., & Dideron, G. (2024). Nonlinear studies of modifications to general relativity: Comparing different approaches. doi:10.48550/arxiv.2405.15581
  • Corman, M., & East, W. E. (2024). Black hole-neutron star mergers in Einstein-scalar-Gauss-Bonnet gravity. https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.18496v2
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Evstafyeva, T., Siemonsen, N., & East, W. (2025). Assessing the stability of ultracompact spinning boson stars with nonlinear evolutions. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2508.11527
  • 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
  • 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
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

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