Chris Choi (최민영)

I am a 1st-year PhD student studying Physics at Carnegie Mellon University, specifically the field of Theoretical Cosmology. I graduated from CMU with a Bachelors of Science in Physics and a minor in Math in 2024. I am currently advised by Prof. Tina Kahniashvili.

Background

I am originally from South Korea, and grew up mostly in Queens, NYC. My parents are from Jeollabuk-do, but I myself was born in Seoul. We moved to Los Angeles when I was about 7 months old, and then to NYC when I was around 5. Since 2020, I have been living in Pittsburgh, PA.

General Interests

I enjoy reading hard sci-fi novels and short stories, such as those by Greg Egan, Liu Cixin, and Peter Watts. You can check out my Goodreads account, where I update my catalogue and occasionally post reviews about sci-fi novels. I also love listening to music, especially the genre of prog rock and prog metal (about a 70%-30% split respectively). Specifically, I really enjoy retro prog rock from Sweden, with bands such as Moon Safari, A.C.T., Kaipa, Karmakanic, The Flower Kings, and Brighteye Brison. I also enjoy consuming anime in my free time, you can check out my MAL account. I am also competitive speedcuber, with a focus on the Face-Turning Octahedron. I also enjoy drawing in my spare time. My portfolio can be found on my art instagram. I also enjoy recreationally climbing, doing calisthenics, and weightlifting. Another passion of mine is the study of linguistics. I am endlessly fascinated learning about the various language families across the globe and how they are all related (or not related, in the case of language isolates).

Research Interests

My research explores how we can utilize the theory of gravitational waves to explore and constrain theoretical cosmology models, particularly massive gravity. I also utilize pulsar timing array data to gain information about the gravitational wave background, and potentially explain it with new theories of cosmology and gravity. In the recent past, my group used a time-dependent model of massive gravity, specifically one known as the minimal theory of massive gravity, to explain the stochastic gravitational wave background detected by NANOGrav in their 15-year dataset. There is a possibility that its source is of cosmological origin, because the astrophysical explanation falls short of being able to explain the background. I am also interested in the ways gravitational waves can be altered by free-streaming neutrinos, something I previously investigated. We explored the possibility of establishing a particular damping amplitude and comparing the results with previous work. Currently, I am working on analyzing the additional polarization modes from massive gravity and how it modifies the overlap reduction function.