Black Holes

Understanding the universe’s most extreme objects

An illustration of a black hole.
An illustration of a black hole. d1sk
Black holes push the limits of physics and imagination. At the Simons Foundation and Flatiron Institute, scientists combine theory, observation, and computation to uncover how these cosmic enigmas shape galaxies and the universe itself.
A screenshot from blackhole simulation
Black holes push the limits of physics and imagination. At the Simons Foundation and Flatiron Institute, scientists combine theory, observation, and computation to uncover how these cosmic enigmas shape galaxies and the universe itself.
A screenshot from blackhole simulation

About

The Simons Foundation supports research into black holes as part of its broader mission to advance our understanding of the universe’s most fundamental laws. Through funding, convening, and long-term collaborations, the foundation brings together physicists, mathematicians, and computational scientists to explore how black holes form, evolve, and influence the structure of galaxies.

Much of this work is driven by researchers at the Flatiron Institute, where teams use large-scale simulations and data analysis to study phenomena like accretion disks, gravitational waves, and the behavior of matter under extreme gravity. By supporting both theoretical breakthroughs and computational tools, the Simons Foundation helps push forward one of the most profound areas of modern physics—probing the boundaries of space, time, and the nature of reality itself.

People

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Rediet Abebe

Assistant Professor of Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley

Rhiannon Adam headshot

Rhiannon Adam

Photographic Artist

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Alexandre Adam

Flatiron Research Fellow, Centers for Computational Astrophysics and Computational Mathematics

Portrait photo of Ryan Adams

Ryan Adams

Investigator, Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain

News

SFARI spotlight image.

Simons Foundation Announces 2026–2027 Class of SURFiN Fellows

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How Math Helped Argentine Sparrows Relearn Lost Songs

Funded Work

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Gut Feelings: How Our Nervous and Immune Systems Communicate

Presidential Lecture
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Kakeya Sets and Related Problems

Presidential Lecture

Mountaintop Microwave Observatory Will Peer Into the Infant Universe Science

Motor neurons organize Drosophila feeding sequences via a disinhibitory cascade

August 24, 2026

Events

Resolving Planet Formation and Evolution Through the Lens of Jupiters

Colloquium

October 9, 2026

3–4 p.m. ET

Speaker

Marta Bryan

Energetics of Integrating the Brain and Body

Lecture

October 7, 2026

6–7 p.m. ET

Speaker

Li Ye

Emerging Directions in Probabilistic Modeling

Workshop

October 5–7, 2026

DMFT-QE Symposium: October 5, 2026

Symposia

October 5, 2026

9:30–11 a.m. ET

Speakers

Alessandro Toschi, Jan von Delft

Software

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aLENS

Software
Simulates microtubule assemblies with motor proteins using Monte Carlo dynamics, constrained collision handling, and massive parallelization.

Astra

Software
Analysis framework for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-V) Milky Way Mapper.
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Astrometry.net

Software
Maps any astronomical image to sky coordinates (WCS) with no false positives, even without metadata, enabling real-time use across archives.
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BridgeStan

Software
BridgeStan gives in-memory access to Stan models via multiple languages, exposing log densities, gradients, Hessians, transforms, and predictions.

Publications

Topological Phase Transitions Induced by Disorder in Magnetically Doped (Bi, Sb)\(_2\)Te\(_3\) Thin Films

Takuya Okugawa, Peizhe Tang, Rubio, Angel, and Dante M. Kennes

Single-particle spectral function formulated and calculated by variational Monte Carlo method with application to \(d\)-wave superconducting state

Charlebois, Maxime and Masatoshi Imada

Ultrasound evidence for a two-component superconducting order parameter in Sr\(_2\)RuO\(_4\)

S. Benhabib, C. Lupien, I. Paul, L. Berges, M. Dion, M. Nardone, et al.

Plaquette versus ordinary \(d\)-wave pairing in the \(t’\)-Hubbard model on a width 4 cylinder

C. Chung, Mingpu Qin, Zhang, Shiwei, Ulrich Schollwöck, and S. White

Groups & Centers