Sarah Racz

Sarah Racz https://sarahracz.com Sarah Racz Thu, 06 Aug 2026 16:50:06 +0000 https://sarahracz.com en Nabokov Color https://sarahracz.com/Nabokov-Color Thu, 06 Aug 2026 16:50:06 +0000 Sarah Racz https://sarahracz.com/Nabokov-Color CV https://sarahracz.com/CV Mon, 06 Feb 2023 18:41:49 +0000 Sarah Racz https://sarahracz.com/CV Education - Ph.D. in Physics, University of Texas at Austin, 2024            Supervised by Dr. Willy Fischler - B.A. in Math/Physics, Reed College, 2018            Thesis supervised by Dr. Joel Franklin and Dr. Lyudmila Korobenko Positions HeldAssistant Professor, Sarah Lawrence College (2024 - present)Physics Departmental Associate, Reed College (2018-2019)Fellowships & AwardsKITP Scholar, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (2025)John A. Wheeler Graduate Fellowship in Physics, UT Austin (2023)Graduate Student Teaching Award, UT Austin (2023)Michiro Naito Endowed Fellowship in Physics, UT Austin (2021)Dean’s Strategic Fellowship, UT Austin (2019)Academic Commendation, Reed College (2018)McGill Lawrence Internship Award, Reed College (2018)Winter Travel Fellowship, Reed College (2017)Summer Internship Award, Reed College (2016)Student Opportunity Grant, Reed College (2016)Courses TaughtSarah Lawrence College Classical and Quantum Waves (Fall 2025)First Year Studies: Foundations of Modern Physics (Yearlong 2025-2026)Independent Study: Advanced Electromagnetism (Fall 2025)Independent Study: Computation in an Expanding Universe (Fall 2025)Quantum Mechanics & Quantum Information (Spring 2025)General Physics II: Electromagnetism (Spring 2025)General Physics I: Mechanics (Fall 2024)Introduction to Relativity (Fall 2024)Independent Study: Advanced Research in Theoretical Physics (Fall 2024)University of Texas at Austin Introduction to Physical Science I: Mechanics and Heat (Fall 2021 - Spring 2024)Introduction to Physical Science II: Electricity, Light, and Optics (Spring 2023)Publications and PreprintsW. Fischler, H. Krishna, and  S. Racz, "Seeing double: shockwaves and the de Sitter horizon" (arxiv:2511.03781 [hep-th])W. Fischler, H. Krishna, and  S. Racz, "There is more to the de Sitter horizon than just the area" (arxiv:2412.12097 [hep-th])W. Fischler and S. Racz, "Plato Meets de Sitter, or de Sitter’s Allegory of the Cave" (arxiv:2405.08080 [hep-th])E. Caceres S. Eccles, J. Pollack, and S. Racz, "Generic ETH: Eigenstate Thermalization beyond the Microcanonical" (arxiv:2403.05197 [quant-ph])J. Couch, P. Nguyen, S. Racz, G. Stratis, and Y. Zhang, "One-Half Reflected Entropy is Not a Lower Bound for Entanglement of Purification" (arxiv:2309.02506 [quant-ph]) B. Kent, S. Racz, and S. Shashi, "Scrambling in Quantum Cellular Automata" (Phys. Rev. B 107, 144306, arxiv:2301.07722 [quant-ph])V. Cuomo,  V. P. Debattista, S. Racz, et al., "Testing for Relics of Past Strong Buckling Events in Edge-on Galaxies" (MNRAS Volume 518, Issue 2, January 2023, arxiv:2210.12255 [astro-ph.ga])S. Eccles, W. Fischler, T. Guglielmo, J. Pedraza, and S. Racz, "Speeding Up the Spread of Quantum Information in Chaotic Systems" (HEP 12 (2021) 019, arxiv:2108.12688 [hep-th])Presentations Talks "de Sitter’s Cave", High Energy Theory Seminar, City College of New York, November 2024"de Sitter’s Cave", High Energy Theory Seminar, Syracuse University, October 2024"Warping the Cosmological Horizon", Sarah Lawrence College Science Symposium, May 2024"Warping the Cosmological Horizon", Southwest Strings 2024, Texas A&M, March 2024"Quantum Lessons from Classical Gravity", Sarah Lawrence College Seminar, February 2024 “Scrambling in Clifford Quantum Cellular Automata”, Southwest Strings 2023, University of Arizona at Tuscon, March 2023“Eigenstate Thermalization with Conserved Charges”, Southwest Strings 2022, University of Texas at Austin, March 2022 Posters "Scrambling in Clifford Quantum Cellular Automata", Quantum Information, Quantum Matter and Quantum Gravity, Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, September 2023"ETH Beyond the Microcanonical", It From Qubit, Perimeter Institute, Canada, July 2023"Eigenstate Thermalization with Conserved Charges", Strings, University of Vienna, Austria, July 2022ServiceMentor, Gender Minorities in Physics, UT Austin (Fall 2023 - Summer 2024)Mentor, Marymount High School Research Program (Fall 2023 - Spring 2024)Directed Reading Program, UT Austin (Fall 2022 - Summer 2024)3rd Grade Math Outreach Teacher, Portland, OR (2017-2018)Groups & CommitteesLeader, Gender Minorities in Physics, UT Austin (Spring 2020 - Summer 2024)Member, Graduate Welfare Committee, UT Austin (Fall 2020 - Spring 2022)Leader, Gender Minorities in STEM, Reed College (Fall 2015 - Spring 2018)Skills & Certificates Certificates Microcredential in Promoting Active Learning, ACUE (October 2023)Inclusive Classrooms Leadership Certificate Seminar, UT Austin (April 2023) Technical Skills: Python, Julia, Mathematica, LaTeXLanguages: English (native), Romanian (fluent), French (intermediate speaking ability) Anything else https://sarahracz.com/Anything-else Mon, 06 Feb 2023 19:27:24 +0000 Sarah Racz https://sarahracz.com/Anything-else These days I’m baking bread at home with my cats Sardine and Kishke or riding my bike with friends. I also enjoy playing guitar, hiking, traveling, and reading. I am enthusiastic about the golden-cheeked warbler. Teaching & Outreach https://sarahracz.com/Teaching-Outreach Mon, 06 Feb 2023 18:41:33 +0000 Sarah Racz https://sarahracz.com/Teaching-Outreach Currently I am teaching General Physics II: Electromagnetism and Foundations of Modern PhysicsPrevious Courses:Sarah Lawrence: Foundations of Modern Physics: Classical Mechanics Foundations of Modern Physics: Quantum MechanicsIntroduction to Einstein’s Relativity General Physics I: Mechanics General Physics II: ElectromagnetismClassical & Quantum Waves Quantum Mechanics & Quantum Information UT Austin: Physical Science 303: Introduction to Mechanics and Heat Science 304: Electricity and Magnetism at UT Austin Here is an article about a math outreach program I helped develop at Reed CollegeHere is a video of a short talk I gave upon recieving a graduate teaching award at UT Austin  titled “The physics of spaghetti breaking: relearning physical intuition through inquiry based methods”  Info https://sarahracz.com/Info Mon, 06 Feb 2023 16:48:29 +0000 Sarah Racz https://sarahracz.com/Info Hello! I’m an assistant professor of physics at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. I completed my PhD at the University of Texas at Austin in the Weinberg Theory Group under the supervision of Dr. Willy Fischler. I did my Bachelor’s at Reed College in Physics/Math. I primarily work on projects at the interface of quantum information and quantum gravity. In particular, I am interested in understanding problems in de Sitter spacetime. <img width="600" height="400" width_o="600" height_o="400" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c3cbd83c0abdfcb8ed4d51190382053e773ddd70f3ce6b438dac39961fac9d0c/download.jpg" data-mid="218702202" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/600/i/c3cbd83c0abdfcb8ed4d51190382053e773ddd70f3ce6b438dac39961fac9d0c/download.jpg" /> Email HOME https://sarahracz.com/HOME Mon, 06 Feb 2023 18:29:42 +0000 Sarah Racz https://sarahracz.com/HOME Hi! I’m an assistant professor of physics at Sarah Lawrence College. You can learn more about me or see my CV. You can also find out more about my research and teaching activities, or anything else I’m up to. My work can be found on INSPIRE or ArXiv. Feel free to send an email.  Index https://sarahracz.com/Index Thu, 29 Sep 2022 21:48:53 +0000 Sarah Racz https://sarahracz.com/Index Here are some of the projects I have worked on Imprint of de Sitter shockwaves on the cosmological horizon https://sarahracz.com/Imprint-of-de-Sitter-shockwaves-on-the-cosmological-horizon Fri, 07 Nov 2025 14:18:08 +0000 Sarah Racz https://sarahracz.com/Imprint-of-de-Sitter-shockwaves-on-the-cosmological-horizon <img width="584" height="878" width_o="584" height_o="878" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/af010e6f1888c8cd6b68d79562bdcc877f9e5e505535bca97d194c7c8f6ac56d/DoubleShockHorizon.png" data-mid="240370138" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/584/i/af010e6f1888c8cd6b68d79562bdcc877f9e5e505535bca97d194c7c8f6ac56d/DoubleShockHorizon.png" /> Seeing double: shock waves and the de Sitter horizonWe consider a de Sitter observer in his rest frame at late times who observes a particle slightly displaced from unstable equilibrium. Initially, the observer notices an axisymmetric and parity-violating deformation along the trajectory of the displaced particle of his cosmological horizon. On a time scale of order ℓ, the de Sitter radius, the particle is nearly absorbed by the cosmological horizon and has been accelerated to an ultra-relativistic speed and thus is well approximated as a shock wave. In the shock wave limit, the observer sees an axisymmetric deformation of his horizon with parity restored, which we interpret as arising due to a particle from the complementary static patch. We comment on the holographic implications of this result and note that there is no need to extend the holographic screen of de Sitter spacetime beyond the empty static patch to account for this signal. There's more to the de Sitter horizon than just its area https://sarahracz.com/There-s-more-to-the-de-Sitter-horizon-than-just-its-area Fri, 27 Dec 2024 15:53:27 +0000 Sarah Racz https://sarahracz.com/There-s-more-to-the-de-Sitter-horizon-than-just-its-area <img width="2032" height="1566" width_o="2032" height_o="1566" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ae654e4085716f956ab3d7d462f27e487daf8591a866393ba04518b589ba2165/Screen-Shot-2024-12-27-at-5.55.10-PM.png" data-mid="223857867" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ae654e4085716f956ab3d7d462f27e487daf8591a866393ba04518b589ba2165/Screen-Shot-2024-12-27-at-5.55.10-PM.png" /> There is more to the de Sitter horizon than just the area It is well known that the area of the de Sitter cosmological horizon is related to the entropy of the bulk spacetime. Recent work has however shown that the horizon encodes more information about the bulk spacetime than just the entropy. In this work, we show that the horizon contains all of the gauge invariant (diffeomorphism and U(1)) information about (static albeit unstable) configurations of charged and rotating objects placed deep inside the de Sitter spacetime. We study highly symmetric objects, such as dipoles and cubes, built of objects with electric charge and angular momentum at their vertices. We show how these configurations affect the geometry of the cosmological horizon and imprint detailed information about the objects in the bulk onto the cosmological horizon. Perturbing the de Sitter cosmological horizon https://sarahracz.com/Perturbing-the-de-Sitter-cosmological-horizon Wed, 22 Nov 2023 18:21:00 +0000 Sarah Racz https://sarahracz.com/Perturbing-the-de-Sitter-cosmological-horizon <img width="1200" height="1303" width_o="1200" height_o="1303" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9944f8a30d1bc0f42526c5dc7e3a1638db7609f16764e211a537809e0bef106c/zdodec.jpg" data-mid="210910034" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9944f8a30d1bc0f42526c5dc7e3a1638db7609f16764e211a537809e0bef106c/zdodec.jpg" /> Plato Meets de Sitter, or de Sitter’s Allegory of the CaveConfigurations of masses located at the vertices of Platonic solids deep within the bulk of de Sitter spacetime generate deformations of the cosmological horizon with the geometry dual to these polyhedra. The horizon data encodes both the symmetries and sizes of the solids in the bulk.