Classification: Primary Faculty

Education: Ph.D., Physics, University of Chicago (2011)

Fields of Study: Astrophysics and Cosmology

Research Interests: 

I work on a variety of problems in gravitational physics, plasma physics and astrophysics, with an emphasis on the regime where gravity and electromagnetism are strong. A unifying theme is that strong fields make for interesting physics and theoretical simplification that enables clean study of important processes. I like to work on problems that have both intrinsic interest and astrophysical application. Recent interests have included the two-body problem in general relativity, electromagnetic and gravitational self-force effects on the motion of bodies, strong-field (force-free) plasmas and quantum-electrodynamical corrections, and physics near rapidly rotating black holes.

Selected Publications: 

Spacetime Approach to Force-Free Magnetospheres. S. Gralla and T. Jacobson. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 445, 2500-2534 (2014).

Bobbing and Kicks in Electromagnetism and Gravity. S. Gralla, A. Harte and R. Wald. Phys. Rev. D 81, 104012 (2010).

A Rigorous Derivation of Gravitational Self-force. S. Gralla and R. Wald. Class. Quantum Grav. 25, 205009 (2008).