Itai Linial
I am currently an Einstein Fellow (through the NASA Hubble Fellowship Program), at New York University.
Before, I was a joint postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study and at the THEA group of Columbia University. I was also generously supported by The Gruber Foundation Prize Fellowship, and the Rothschild Fellowship. I completed my PhD in 2022 as an Adams Fellow at the Astrophysics department of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, under the supervision of Re’em Sari.
I work on a variety of topics in theoretical astrophysics, including high-energy astrophysical phenomena, hydrodynamics and dynamical processes in galactic nuclei. See “research” section below for more details on some of my current interests.
Research
All of my publications on NASA ADS, Google Scholar.
Some current research interests
- Flares from massive black holes and their emission mechanisms
Transient surveys are discovering a growing number of high-energy flares from the centers of galaxies. Much of my recent work focuses on understanding the physical origin of these flares, their connection to the supermassive black holes that reside in galactic nuclei, and how current and future observations can be used to probe the physical processes at play in the immediate vicinity of black holes. - Dynamical processes in galactic nuclei: Formation of high-energy transients and gravitational-wave sources
Supermassive black holes are often embedded in dense star clusters containing millions of stars and compact objects. I study the dynamical processes that lead to the destruction of stars in galactic nuclei and power high-energy astrophysical transients.
Within the next decade, the launch of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will open a new window onto gravitational waves (GWs) in the millihertz frequency band. Stellar-mass objects orbiting supermassive black holes are expected to be a key source of GWs in this band. I study the distribution of orbits around supermassive black holes to characterize the population of sources LISA will detect and to identify their potential multimessenger counterparts.
CV and Contact
Email: il2688 AT nyu.edu
