Sam Gralla

Dr. Gralla works on a variety of problems in gravitational physics, plasma physics and astrophysics, with an emphasis on the regime where gravity and electromagnetism are strong. A unifying theme is that strong fields make for interesting physics and theoretical simplification that enables clean study of important processes.

Sam likes to work on problems that have both intrinsic interest and astrophysical application. Recent interests have included the two-body problem in general relativity, electromagnetic and gravitational self-force effects on the motion of bodies, strong-field (force-free) plasmas and quantum-electrodynamical corrections, and physics near rapidly rotating black holes.

Selected Publications: 

Spacetime Approach to Force-Free Magnetospheres. S. Gralla and T. Jacobson. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 445, 2500-2534 (2014).

Bobbing and Kicks in Electromagnetism and Gravity. S. Gralla, A. Harte and R. Wald. Phys. Rev. D 81, 104012 (2010).

A Rigorous Derivation of Gravitational Self-force. S. Gralla and R. Wald. Class. Quantum Grav. 25, 205009 (2008).