VandyGRAF

Vanderbilt initiative for gravity, waves, and fluids

VandyGRAF Initiative

VandyGRAF Initiative

The Vanderbilt Initiative for Gravity, Waves, and Fluids is an interdisciplinary research venture providing mathematicians, physicists, and astrophysicists with the resources and space to connect and collaboratively work on problems of outstanding scientific merit, such as:

  • General relativity: theoretical, mathematical, numerical, or experimental, including, but not restricted to, black holes, gravitational radiation, and multimessenger astrophysics.
  • Fluid mechanics: theoretical, mathematical, numerical, or experimental, including, but not restricted to, relativistic fluids far from equilibrium.
  • Evolution of partial differential equations related to fluids and gravity, including, but not restricted to, the geometric analysis of waves and fluids.
  • The physics and mathematics of neutron star mergers and high-energy nuclear collisions.

VandyGRAF Seminar Series

All VandyGRAF talks will take place in the Chapel in the 17th&Horton building, unless indicated below.

Lorenzo Gavassino, University of Cambridge, UK

Friday, September 11, 2026

Relativistic many-body dynamics in a single quantum particle

Abstract: In this talk, I will present a novel approach for studying the linear-response properties of relativistic matter. I will show that a broad class of models, including kinetic theory and transient hydrodynamics, can be equivalently rewritten in the linear regime as Schrödinger equations in imaginary time. The resulting quantum systems typically involve a single particle in an electrically perturbed potential, making the problem analytically tractable in many cases. Moreover, the two descriptions are linked by a universal dictionary. Hydrodynamic and non-hydrodynamic modes become perturbed ground states and excited states, respectively; the free energy of the perturbation becomes the Hilbert-space norm; the entropy-production rate becomes the expectation value of the unperturbed Hamiltonian; and transport coefficients become perturbative Stark-splitting coefficients. I will then show how this quantum reformulation can be used to settle a long-standing question: how does relativistic causality constrain transport?

Khwahish Kushwah, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil

Friday, October 2, 2026

Roman Berens, University of Illinois

Friday October 16, 2026

Gilbert Weinstein, Ariel University, Israel

Thursday, October 8, 2026

Daniel D’Orazio, Niels Bohr Institute, Denmark

Friday, November 6, 2026

William Wolf, University of Oxford, UK

Friday, December 4, 2026