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 recent interests.
Research
All of my publications on NASA ADS, Google Scholar.
Selected recent work
- Flares from massive black holes and their emission mechanisms
Repeating X-ray flares from collisions of an EMRI with a TDE accretion disk: Linial & Metzger (2023), UV-analog: Linial & Metzger (2024a), Radiation transport calculations: Vurm, Linial & Metzger (2025), Debris-stream and disk collisions: Linial, Metzger & Quataert (2025), Radiation-hydrodynamics simulations of star-disk collisions: Huang, Linial & Jiang (2025)
Period evolution of repeating nuclear transients: Linial & Quataert (2024a), Observations: Arcodia, Linial et al. (2024), Miniutti et al. (inc. Linial) (2025), Chakraborty et al. (inc. Linial) (2026), Arcodia et al. (inc. Linial) (2026)
Discoveries of repeating sources: Chakraborty et al. (inc. Linial) (2025), Makrygianni et al. (inc. Linial) (2025)
Coupled star-disk evolution: Linial & Metzger (2024b)
IMBH-TDE simulations: Martire et al. (inc. Linial) (2026)
Mass transfer from a star to a massive black hole: Linial & Sari (2017), Krolik & Linial (2022), Linial & Sari (2023), “Circular TDEs”: Linial & Quataert (2024b) - Dynamical processes in galactic nuclei: Formation of high-energy transients and gravitational-wave sources
EMRI rates in LISA: Rom, Linial, Kaur & Sari (2024)
Direct stellar collisions: Rose, Naoz, Sari & Linial (2023)
Steady-state energy flux in galactic nuclei: Rom, Linial & Sari (2023)
Stellar EMRIs and Runaway mass transfer: Linial & Sari (2023)
Mass-segregation in galactic nuclei: Linial & Sari (2022)
Formation of IMBHs in galactic nuclei: Rose, Naoz, Sari & Linial (2022)
Mass-transferring white-dwarf as a multimessenger EM/GW source: Linial & Quataert (2024b)
CV and Contact
Email: il2688 AT nyu.edu
Itai Linial 