Jamie A.P. Law-Smith

Position

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago. I am also affiliated with the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics and the Kadanoff Center for Theoretical Physics.

Contact

Office: ERC 443, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, 5640 S Ellis Ave, Chicago, IL 60637

Email: jamielawsmith@uchicago.edu

Research Interests

For nonspecialists:

I am a theorist (as opposed to an observer or experimentalist). I do research in theoretical astrophysics and theoretical physics. Very roughly speaking, the astrophysics work I do is about what happens near the outside of black holes and the physics work I do is about what happens inside black holes (which is also important for understanding the universe as a whole). 

For specialists:

I have broad interests in high energy astrophysics theory and high energy physics theory. Right now I am most excited about trying to connect string theory to astrophysics.

Particular problems I am interested in include gravitational wave sources, tidal disruptions of stars by black holes, active galactic nuclei, host galaxies, de Sitter space in string theory, vacuum decay, signatures of extra dimensions, black holes and matrix theory, and the string swampland program.

Publications

Up-to-date lists available on:

• ADS

• INSPIRE

• Google Scholar

• arXiv

Bio

I did my undergraduate at Harvard in Physics and Astrophysics (2010-2014), my PhD at UC Santa Cruz in Astronomy & Astrophysics (2015-2021), and I was a fellow at Harvard in the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Center for Astrophysics and in the High Energy Theory Group at the Center for the Fundamental Laws of Nature (2021-2023). I started at UChicago in 2023.

CV

Available upon request.

Available positions

I am happy to talk with students and postdocs any time.

Prospective postdocs: If you are interested in working with me as a postdoc at UChicago, either in the A&A department, the KICP, or the particle theory group/Kadanoff Center/EFI in the physics department, please contact me and also plan on applying to the relevant prize fellowships.

Prospective graduate students: I may not respond to your pre-admissions email (but don't let that stop you) but I am happy to talk after you are admitted.

Software

The STARS library: https://github.com/jamielaw-smith/STARS_library. This is a tool that provides the fallback rate to the black hole from 3D hydrodynamical simulations of tidal disruption events.

Videos

this URL

Other academic material

• Textbook list (physics, astrophysics, math): this google doc

• Anki decks: [todo]

• Unpublished notes: [todo]

Other interests

• reading (philosophy, scifi, fantasy; some favorites: Foundation, LOTR, Anathem, The Three-Body Problem, Contact, GEB, Infinite Jest, Joyce, Borges)

• playing piano (mostly classical)

• film/TV (some favorites: Star Trek (TNG, DS9, VOY), Twin Peaks, 2001: A Space Odyssey, There Will be Blood, Star Wars, Baraka, Miyazaki, Werner Herzog, Dune, Blade Runner)

• nature (the woods, evergreens, rainforests, rain, mist, owls)

• hiking, yoga, pickup basketball