As well as doing literally nothing with my time, I also, on occasion, have done things. One of these things was a PhD in gravitational physics. You can read about my research here. It is not very interesting, but to quote most physicists presenting half-arsed proofs “it is here for completeness”.

2023 My thesis – The 173 page summary of my working life from April 2019 to March 2023 (featuring a 6 month hiatus in 2021). I’d imagine most people clicking on this are only present for the acknowledgements.

2021 BMS charges in polyhomogeneous spacetimes

My first paper. The question of whether or not the Newman-Penrose charges had a place in the covariant phase space formalism and study of asymptotic symmetry is not asked here for the first time. It had already been asked. Then answer is yes (see citations). No, I ask, ‘Do the generalisations of the Newman-Penrose charges for polyhomogeneous spacetimes have a place in the covariant phase space formalism for polyhomogeneous spacetimes?‘ This adds a whole new layer of mathematically agony and the answer is still yes.

2022 Higher derivative asymptotic charges and internal Lorentz symmetries

My second paper. I don’t think we knew what we were really asking with this one. It kind of just turned into 20 pages of results. I view it as a valiant effort to save other mathematicians the trouble of ever having to repeat the calculations (except the peer reviewers – JOKES – as if they checked).

2022 Linear Newman-Penrose charges as subleading BMS and dual BMS charges

Paper three. My only single-authored (and naturally least-cited) paper. I did this calculation because I knew that I could. Having done paper one, I realised I had actually learned a trick or two and managed to generalise some results from n=3 to n=infinity. This did not take infinitely more effort.

2022 Gravitational memory effects and higher derivative actions

In this grand finale, my collaborators and I (mostly my collaborators), link something we did to something to do with spacetime’s permanent scars endured by undergoing gravity business. LET IT GO, SPACETIME.