Gravitational waves
Gravitational waves offer a way to ask about the early Universe, phase transitions and particle physics at energies that are hard to reach in the laboratory.
At the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris
Theory in conversation with observation.
I am a CNRS researcher in the Physique théorique: gravitation et cosmologie (GReCO) group at the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris. I am interested in what gravitational wave searches, primordial black holes and dark matter clustering might tell us about physics beyond the Standard Model.
Research directions
Signals from beyond the Standard Model
The Universe is a rich laboratory for fundamental physics. I look for relics and messengers that might offer clues about its history.
Primordial black holes
Primordial black holes may be relics of the early Universe, and may offer windows onto its small scale structure.
Dark matter clustering
Asking how dark matter forms and clusters, and what that might tell us about the dark sector and the cosmic history of the Universe.
From questions to observables
The map below traces each question through its physical mechanisms, relics and measurable messengers.
A research map
One question, several cosmic messengers.
Follow the arrows from fundamental theory to observable relics. Click a keyword to open its dedicated paper view.
Quantum
field theory
field theory
General
relativity
relativity
The guiding question
What happened during the first second of our Universe?
Non-radiation eras
Cosmological First-order phase transitions
Inflation
Cosmological domain walls
Cosmic strings
Space-time perturbations
Observatories
Moon and satellite tracking
Microhertz ranging
Pulsar timing arrays
Nanohertz timing
LIGO
Ground based interferometer
Gravitational lensing
Light bent by curvature
Telescopes
Cosmic ray observatories
Astrophysics
Supermassive black hole binaries
Explore by keyword
Choose a thread, see only its papers.
Open problems in particle cosmology
Textbook
Dark matter
WIMPs
Heavy relics
Axions
Ultralight fields
Cosmological First-order phase transitions
Cosmological domain walls
Cosmic strings
Inflation
Matter era
Supercooling
Kination era
Reheating
Primordial black holes
Solar-mass PBHs
Ultra-light PBHs
Curvature perturbations
Dark matter clustering
Scalar-induced gravitational waves
Gravitational waves
Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
Pulsar Timing Array
Moon and Satellite Tracking
LIGO
Gravitational lensing
Telescopes
Research matrix
One paper, one row. Every connection visible.
No paper in this snapshot uses this keyword.
34 works in this snapshot · refreshed 9 September 2026
Open live INSPIRE recordTextbook · Springer Theses
Beyond the Standard Model Cocktail.
A review of open puzzles in theoretical particle physics and cosmology, with a focus on heavy dark matter.
This book follows the questions that sit between the Standard Model and the history of the Universe. It introduces the hierarchy problem, the cosmological constant, the matter antimatter asymmetry and the dark matter problem, then surveys the proposed solutions.
The emphasis is on thermal dark matter, first order cosmological phase transitions and gravitational wave signatures. It is both a possible guide to open problems and a starting point for students and researchers entering particle cosmology.
SeriesSpringer Theses
Length519 pages
DOI10.1007/978-3-031-11862-3
Explore related research
Open problems
Dark matter
Phase transitions
Gravitational waves
Cosmic strings
Talks
Talks and slides.
Talks and slides
Every talk title is a direct link to its presentation slides.
38 Invited seminars
- Gravitational Probes of the Early Universe NYU Abu Dhabi
- Gravitational Probes of the Early Universe ULB, Brussels
- Gravitational Probes of the Early Universe NICPB, Tallinn
- New Physics Explanations of the PTA Signal Are Incompatible with WIMP Dark Matter IAP, Paris
- Probing the Early Universe through Space Time Perturbations LUPM, Montpellier
- Probing the Early Universe through Space Time Perturbations LPTHE, Paris
- WIMPs and New Physics Interpretations of the PTA Signal Are Incompatible LAPTh, Annecy
- WIMPs and New Physics Interpretations of the PTA Signal Are Incompatible Florence Theory Group
- WIMPs and New Physics Interpretations of the PTA Signal Are Incompatible University of Bologna
- The Hidden Link between Pulsar Timing Arrays and LIGO Bar Ilan University
- Primordial Black Holes from Supercooled Phase Transitions MITP, Mainz
- Primordial Black Holes from Supercooled Phase Transitions Cosmo Coffee, CERN
- Primordial Black Holes and Wormholes from Domain Wall Networks KIT, Karlsruhe
- Primordial Black Holes and Wormholes from Domain Wall Networks SHEP, Southampton
- Primordial Black Holes and Wormholes from Domain Wall Networks DESY, Hamburg
- Primordial Black Holes and Wormholes from Domain Wall Networks ENS, Paris
- PBHs from Domain Wall Networks Motivated by the PTA Signal L2C, Montpellier
- PBHs from Domain Wall Networks Motivated by the PTA Signal ENS, Paris
- Primordial Black Holes from Supercooled First Order Phase Transitions VUB, Brussels
- Primordial Black Holes from Supercooled First Order Phase Transitions ENS, Paris
- Primordial Black Holes from Supercooled Phase Transitions IPhT, Paris
- Primordial Black Holes from Supercooled Phase Transitions APC, Paris
- Primordial Black Holes from Supercooled First Order Phase Transitions Technion, Haifa
- Primordial Black Holes from Supercooled First Order Phase Transitions ICTP, Trieste
- Primordial Black Holes from Supercooled First Order Phase Transitions Hebrew University, Jerusalem
- Primordial Black Holes from Supercooled First Order Phase Transitions LPTHE, Paris
- Primordial Black Holes from Supercooled First Order Phase Transitions LAPTh, Annecy
- Charting New Particle Physics with Primordial Gravitational Waves Joint Particle Seminar, Tel Aviv
- Cosmological Consequences of Supercooled Confining Phase Transitions Hebrew University, Jerusalem
- Cosmological Consequences of Supercooled Confining Phase Transitions Virtual Seminar, Helsinki
- Beyond the Standard Models with Cosmic Strings Webminar, Mainz
- Beyond the Standard Models with Cosmic Strings Webminar, Tel Aviv University
- Beyond the Standard Models with Cosmic Strings Webminar, APC Paris
- Implication of Supercooling in Composite Higgs Tel Aviv University
- Implication of Supercooling in Composite Higgs Weizmann University
- Implication of Supercooling in Composite Higgs LPTHE, Paris
- Semi Classical Objects in Quantum Field Theory: Cosmic Strings Theory Workshop Seminar, DESY
- Cosmological Relaxation à la Abbott and Brown Teitelboim Theory Workshop Seminar, DESY
38 Workshops and conferences
- PBHs from Domain Walls and First Order Phase Transitions IFPU workshop, Trieste
- New Physics Explanations of the PTA Signal Are Incompatible with WIMP Dark Matter TUG workshop, Saclay
- Gravitational Probes of the Early Universe New Physics from Galaxy Clustering, Florence
- New Physics Explanations of the PTA Signal Are Incompatible with WIMP Dark Matter Workshop on GWs from BSMs, Warsaw
- WIMPs and New Physics Interpretations of the PTA Signal Are Incompatible Workshop on Gravitational Probes, London
- Cosmological Perturbations Theory of First Order Phase Transitions ICTS workshop, Annecy
- Baby Universe from Domain Wall Networks ICTS workshop, Bengaluru
- Bubble Wall Velocity during Yang Mills Confinement IFPU workshop, Trieste
- Gravitational Waves from BSM Sources and Pulsar Timing Arrays COST Action COSMIC WISPers, DESY
- Primordial Black Holes from Domain Wall Networks and the Discovery of nHz GWs Rencontres de Physique des Particules, Paris
- Primordial Black Holes from Supercooled Phase Transitions Paris workshop on PBHs and GWs
- Primordial Black Holes from Supercooled Phase Transitions Rubakov Conference, Yerevan
- PBHs from Domain Wall Networks Motivated by the PTA Signal Axion++, Annecy
- PBHs from Phase Transitions Early Universe Cosmology with GWs and PBHs, Warsaw
- The Domain Wall Interpretation of the PTA Signal Is Excluded by PBH Overproduction COST Action Seminar, CERN
- Primordial Black Holes from Supercooled First Order Phase Transitions Israeli Physical Society annual meeting, Tel Aviv
- Primordial Black Holes from Supercooled First Order Phase Transitions IFT workshop, Madrid
- Cosmological Implications of Supercooled Phase Transitions Cambridge High Energy Workshop, Boston
- Charting New Particle Physics with Primordial Gravitational Waves Fundamental Forces from Colliders to GWs, Lyon
- Charting New Particle Physics with Primordial Gravitational Waves Planck 2022, Paris
- Primordial Black Holes from Supercooled First Order Phase Transitions Blois 2022
- Cosmological Implications of Supercooled Confinement SUSY 2021
- String Fragmentation in Supercooled Confinement and Implications for Dark Matter EPS HEP 2021, Berlin
- String Fragmentation in Supercooled Confinement and Implications for Dark Matter PASCOS 2021, Daejeon
- String Fragmentation in Supercooled Confinement and Implications for Dark Matter First EuCAPT Annual Symposium, CERN
- String Fragmentation in Supercooled Confinement and Implications for Dark Matter HPNP 2021, Tokyo
- Supercool Dilaton Mediated Composite Dark Matter Annual Israeli Physics Society Conference
- String Fragmentation in Supercooled Confinement and Implications for Dark Matter Israeli Joint Particle Physics Meetings
- Beyond the Standard Models with Cosmic Strings 89th PRC Theory Meeting, DESY
- Supercool Composite Dark Matter New Directions in Heavy Dark Matter, DESY
- Beyond the Standard Models with Cosmic Strings COST workshop, Berlin
- Implication of Supercooling in Composite Higgs Planck 2019, Granada
- Implication of Supercooling in Composite Higgs 14th Kosmologietag Workshop, Bielefeld
- Implication of Supercooling in Composite Higgs Light Scalars workshop, Benasque
- Homeopathic Dark Matter Helmholtz Matter and Universe Workshop, DESY
- Thermal Dark Matter beyond 100 TeV and Cosmic Rays PuzzleDarkMatter Workshop, DESY
- Thermal Dark Matter beyond 100 TeV and Cosmic Rays DESY Theory Workshop 18
- Thermal Dark Matter beyond 10/100 TeV Cargèse Summer School
Outreach
Cosmology, out in the wild.
Particle physics and cosmology sometimes wander outside the seminar room too. Here are a few examples: an article, a public talk and a handful of short French videos.
Aperio Science Magazine · 2022
Cosmological archaeology
An introduction to reading the early Universe for clues about where it came from, written with science journalist Dan Falk.
Read the feature
TED style talk
The Higgs field, at home.
A kitchen table way to meet one of particle physics’ strangest ideas.
Watch the talkFrench language videos
From the Higgs boson to the primordial Universe.
A few short French videos, from the Higgs boson to the joys and oddities of a life in physics.
Radio interview
Un fond diffus d’ondes gravitationnelles provenant de trous noirs colossaux
A conversation in French with Aurélia Zahedi about the colossal black holes behind a diffuse gravitational wave background.
Public talk · 1 hour
Listening to the universe: from Black Holes to the God Particles
An hour with the community at Neot Semadar, Israel, on a tour from black holes to the God particles.
TED style talk · 10 minutes
Hearing space time vibration to understand mass
Ten minutes in the Mitzpe Ramon desert on how space time vibrations help us understand mass. It won the best postdoc talk prize.
Public talk · 90 minutes
Astronomie avec ondes gravitationnelles
A 90 minute public talk and half an hour of questions in a French castle, with about 100 people in the room.
Teaching
A few ways into difficult physics.
A tour through physics, from electromagnetism at bachelor level to cosmology and quantum field theory at master level, plus a doctoral summer school session.
Academic teaching
Tutorials, exercises and questions.
Teaching assistant appointments in Hamburg and Orsay, with exercise sessions, grading and additional support for students.
TA in Theoretical Cosmology
Hamburg University · 22 hours of tutorials and exercise sheet grading. Lectures by Prof. Geraldine Servant.
TA in Advanced Quantum Mechanics 2
Hamburg University · 45 hours of tutorials. Lectures by Prof. Gleb Arutyunov.
TA in Quantum Field Theory 2
Hamburg University · 33 hours of tutorials. Lectures by Prof. Gleb Arutyunov.
TA in Quantum Field Theory 1
Hamburg University · 35 hours of tutorials. Lectures by Prof. Gleb Arutyunov.
TA in Electromagnetism
University Paris Sud 11, Orsay · 18 hours of tutorials for students needing additional support. Lectures by Prof. Khuôn-Viêt Pham.
Lecturing
BSM in the sky.
A doctoral level session on beyond Standard Model particle physics and cosmology at the COST Summer School in Ljubljana.
Ljubljana, Slovenia
COST Summer School on BSM particle physics and cosmology
Four hours of exercises and worked corrections, alongside lectures by Dr. Filippo Sala.
Curriculum vitae
A clear record of the work.
A single linked document with my research, teaching, talks and academic path.
Complete document
Research, teaching and talks in one place.
For the longer version, open the linked PDF. The talk archive on this site opens each title directly to its presentation slides.
A note on peace
No one is made safer by hatred.
I oppose war and occupation wherever they occur, and I reject violence against civilians whoever commits it. Every war does the same thing to the people who had least say in starting it. It kills them, displaces them, starves them, and then it turns them into a statistic.
The fear that drives people to war is usually real. Killing the people you fear has never once ended that fear. It only passes it on to their children, who then have reasons of their own.
To anyone living inside such a war: I think of you, and above all of those who refuse to stay quiet about what is done in your name. I wish you the strength to keep seeing the other side as human, and the courage to say so while it is unpopular.
Science and peace
Eight countries, one light source.
The clearest answer I know to what physics offers beyond physics is a machine in Jordan.
SESAME is a synchrotron light source in Jordan, open since 2017. Its members are Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan, Palestine and Turkey. Israelis, Iranians and Palestinians sit on the same council and take beamtime on the same machine.
It was built on the CERN model, and deliberately so. CERN itself was founded in 1954 to rebuild European science and to bind together countries that had just spent six years destroying one another.
None of this has ended a single conflict, and it was never going to. What it demonstrates is narrower and harder to wave away: people whose governments will not speak to each other will still share a beamline, argue about optics and publish from the same machine.
Contact
Let’s keep talking.
yann.gouttenoire@iap.frInstitut d’Astrophysique de Paris · Paris, France