Thomas Osburn

I am a theoretical physicist that specializes in computational gravity. My research students and I predict the behavior and evolution of asymmetric mass compact binary systems where a black hole or neutron star inspirals towards a larger black hole. These systems emit gravitational waves at the peak sensitivity of the upcoming laser interferometer space antenna (LISA) mission to detect gravitational waves from space.

Source: Schwarzschild perturbations in Lorenz gauge via elliptic differential equations, https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.07934

This asymmetric scenario is described by black hole perturbation theory and self-force calculations. To enable higher order perturbations, we launched a research program to formulate rotating black hole perturbations in terms of elliptic partial differential equations, which we solve numerically.

I am the PI for NSF Award no. 2309020 entitled Investigating gravitational waves and extreme mass-ratio compact binaries, and I was a awarded as a Fulbright Scholar to Ireland to develop this project in collaboration with researchers at University College Dublin.

List of recent publications involving me and current/former research students:

Schwarzschild perturbations in Lorenz gauge via elliptic differential equations
Thomas Osburn, Barry Wardell, and Erin Battaglia
Submitted to Physical Review D (2026), https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.07934

Self-force calculations with numerical relativity methods
N. Vu, N. Nishimura, Thomas Osburn, J. Thompson, L. Kidder, S. Upton, and B. Wardell
Physical Review D, accepted (2026), https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.04998

New self-force method via elliptic partial differential equations for Kerr inspiral models
Thomas Osburn and Nami Nishimura
Physical Review D 106, 044056 (2022), https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.07031

Highly eccentric EMRI waveforms via fast self-forced inspirals
Jonathan McCart, Thomas Osburn, and Justin Y.J. Burton
Physical Review D 104, 084050 (2021), https://arxiv.org/abs/2109.00056

Reissner-Nordström perturbation framework with gravitational wave applications
Justin Y.J. Burton and Thomas Osburn
Physical Review D 102, 104030 (2020), https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.12984

Repeated faint quasinormal bursts in extreme-mass-ratio inspiral waveforms: Evidence from frequency-domain scalar self-force calculations on generic Kerr orbits
Zachary Nasipak, Thomas Osburn, and Charles Evans
Physical Review D 100, 064008 (2019), https://arxiv.org/abs/1905.13237

Inspirals into a charged black hole
Ruomin Zhu and Thomas Osburn
Physical Review D 97, 104058 (2018), https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.00836