KICP Fellow
- Address:
- ERC 479
- Email:
- verner@uchicago.edu
- Website:
- https://www.sarunasverner.com/
Background
B.Sc., University of Southampton; M.Sc., Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian; Ph.D., University of Minnesota (2022; advisor: Keith A. Olive)
Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute for Fundamental Theory, University of Florida (2022–2025).
Research
I study the early universe and its connections to fundamental physics through cosmological observations. My research spans inflation and reheating, gravitational particle production, cosmic defects and phase transitions, and the stochastic gravitational-wave (GW) backgrounds they generate. I develop minimal, testable models and confront them with data from the cosmic microwave background (CMB), large-scale structure (LSS), and current and next-generation GW experiments.
A central thrust is developing observational probes of inflation and early-universe cosmology. I pursue signatures such as primordial non-Gaussianity and characteristic GW spectra, using CMB and LSS constraints to map viable parameter space. I connect inflation, reheating, and dark matter production to data and develop forecasting and inference frameworks that translate candidate signals and null results into quantitative bounds on early-universe dynamics.
On the dark matter side, I explore gravitational and other feebly interacting production mechanisms and develop cosmological probes, gravitational-wave backgrounds, isocurvature perturbations, and small-scale-structure imprints, that access scenarios beyond the reach of laboratory experiments.