Amanda Farah



Graviational-Wave Astrophysicist
NSF Graduate Research Fellow | University of Chicago



About





I am a PhD student at the University of Chicago working to use gravitational waves to learn about astrophysics and cosmology. Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of our universe, and they carry information about the accelerating objects that cause them. Sensitive detectors can observe the gravitational waves emitted by collisions of neutron stars and black holes.


I am interested in what populations of gravitational wave sources can teach us about the universe. Looking at each detection of gravitational waves as part of a larger collection reveals insights about compact object formation, binary stellar evolution, and the expansion of the universe, among other things. You can learn more about these topics by clicking through this site.


My PhD advisor is Daniel Holz, and I am a member of the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Scientific Collaboration. I am a NSF Graduate Research Fellow and a William Rainey Harper Fellow.


In my free time, I like to hike, take care of plants, and spend time by Lake Michigan.


Image credit: Sandbox Studio, Chicago with Corinne Mucha for Symmetry Magazine



Research Interests





Selected Publications



Farah, Amanda M., Thomas Callister, Jose María Ezquiaga, Michael Zevin, and Daniel E. Holz. 2024. "No need to know: astrophysics-free gravitational-wave cosmology." arXiv:2404.02210


Farah, Amanda M., Maya Fishbach, and Daniel E. Holz. 2023. “Two of a Kind: Comparing big and small black holes in binaries with gravitational waves.” The Astrophysical Journal 962 (1): 69. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad0558


Farah, Amanda M., Bruce Edelman, Michael Zevin, Maya Fishbach, Jose María Ezquiaga, Ben Farr, and Daniel E. Holz. 2023. “Things that might go bump in the night: Assessing structure in the binary black hole mass spectrum.” The Astrophysical Journal 955 (2): 107 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aced02


Farah, Amanda M., Maya Fishbach, Reed Essick, Daniel E. Holz, and Shanika Galaudage. 2022. “Bridging the Gap: Categorizing Gravitational-Wave Events at the Transition Between Neutron Stars and Black Holes.” The Astrophysical Journal 931 (2): 108 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac5f03​


Essick, Reed, Amanda Farah, Shanika Galaudage, Colm Talbot, Maya Fishbach, Eric Thrane, and Daniel E. Holz. 2021. “Probing Extremal Gravitational-wave Events with Coarse-grained Likelihoods.” The Astrophysical Journal 926 (1): 34 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac3978


Farah, Amanda M., Reed Essick, Zoheyr Doctor, Maya Fishbach, and Daniel E. Holz. 2020. “Counting on Short Gamma-Ray Bursts: Gravitational-Wave Constraints of Jet Geometry.” The Astrophysical Journal 895 (2): 108. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab8d26.


Secco, Lucas F., Amanda Farah, Bhuvnesh Jain, Susmita Adhikari, Arka Banerjee, and Neal Dalal. 2018. “Probing Self-Interacting Dark Matter with Disk Galaxies in Cluster Environments.” The Astrophysical Journal 860 (June): 32. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aac271.

LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration Papers to which I have made significant contribution:

The LIGO Scientific Collaboration, the Virgo Collaboration, the KAGRA Collaboration, 2024. "Observation of Gravitational Waves from the Coalescence of a 2.5−4.5 Solar Mass Compact Object and a Neutron Star.'' arXiv:2404.04248


The LIGO Scientific Collaboration, the Virgo Collaboration, the KAGRA Collaboration, 2021. “The Population of Merging Compact Binaries Inferred Using Gravitational Waves through GWTC-3.” Physical Review X, 13: 011048, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.13.011048


The LIGO Scientific Collaboration, the Virgo Collaboration, the KAGRA Collaboration, 2021 “Search for Gravitational Waves Associated with Gamma-Ray Bursts Detected by Fermi and Swift during the LIGO-Virgo Run O3a.” The Astrophysical Journal 915 (2): 86. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/abee15.


The LIGO Scientific Collaboration, the Virgo Collaboration, the KAGRA Collaboration, 2020 "GW190814: Gravitational Waves from the Coalescence of a 23 Solar Mass Black Hole with a 2.6 Solar Mass Compact Object." The Astrophysical Journal Letters 896 (2): L44 https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ab960f





Curriculum Vitae





Full CV available here (updated August 2024)


Education

University of Chicago October 2018 - present

PhD Candidate

Supervisor: Daniel Holz

University of Pennsylvania May 2018

BA Physics and Astronomy, departmental honors, magna cum laude


Fellowships

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship 2020-2025

National Science Foundation

Data Science for Energy and Environmental Research Fellowship 2019-2022

National Science Foundation Research Traineeship

McCormick Graduate Fellowship 2018-2019

University of Chicago


Invited Academic Talks

Physics and Astrophysics at the Extreme (PAX) July 2024

Astrophysical Populations for Next-Generation GW Detectors (panel)

MIT General Relativity Tea Talk Series June 2024

No need to know: GW cosmology without astrophysics

Niels Bohr International Academy Gravity Seminar June 2024

What the population of GW sources can do for you

APS Divison of Gravitation (DGRAV) Seminar May 2024

GW Cosmology without astrophysics (with Prof. Daniel Holz)

McWilliams Center for Cosmology at Carnegie Mellon University Seminar November 2023

Astrophysical lessons learned from the mass distribution of GW sources

Gravitational-Wave Populations: What’s next? July 2023

How to identify population outliers and what to do with them

UWM Center for Gravitation, Cosmology & Astrophysics Seminar March 2023

Astrophysical lessons learned from the mass distribution of gravitational wave sources

LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA Paper Webinar December 2021

The population of merging compact binaries inferred from GWTC-3

KICP Special Seminar November 2021

The population of merging compact binaries inferred from GWTC-3

Environmental Data Science Lunch April 2021

Don't Just Leave-One-Out: Probing Extremal Gravitational-Wave Events with Coarse-Grained Likelihoods

University of Chicago Department of Geophysical Sciences Expo June 2020

The Wrath of the Jet Stream: Thermodynamic Effects Dominate Reduction of Projected Wintertime Temperature Variability


Public Talks and Outreach

Would a flashlight turn on at lightspeed? And three others 2023-2024

"Moment of Um" Podcast Series by American Public Media

Gravitational Waves from Black Holes February 2023

Guest lecture for undergraduate course, University of Chicago

Gravitational Wave Cosmology June 2022

Guest lecture for undergraduate Astronomy Course, University of Chicago

What To Do When Gravity Waves April 2022

Chicago Public Library, Lifelong Learning talk series

Talk with a scientist March 2022

John Stanford International Elementary School, Invited Speaker


Teaching

Instructor and Course Creator Spring Semester 2023

Prison+Neighborhood Arts/Education Project

Introduction to Observational Astronomy

Instructor and Coordinator Summers of 2020, 2021, and 2022

University of Chicago DSEER Bootcamps

Scientific Programming Workshop

Teaching Assistant Fall 2018 - Summer 2019

Space Explorers Program

Weekly class and biannual institute for high schoolers

Teaching Assistant Fall 2018 and Spring 2019

University of Chicago

Introductory Physics Sequence

Teaching Assistant Winter 2019

University of Chicago

Modern Physics in the Everyday World

Teaching Assistant 2016-2018

University of Pennsylvania Observatory

Instructor for all undergraduate astronomy courses

Active Learning Instructor 2017 - 2018

University of Pennsylvania

Introductory Physics Sequence


Image credit: Aurore Simonnet (LIGO/Caltech/MIT/Sonoma State) for Wired Magazine