Research

My research is about gravity, cosmology and the nature of time. I am interested in how a physical clock can emerge in gravitational theories, and in the connections between topology, quantum cosmology and holography.

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Papers

2026

Unimodular time in JT gravity: a holographic clock

Altay Etkin and Farbod-Sayyed Rassouli

Journal of High Energy Physics · 08 (2026), 193

How is a clock in a gravitational theory described at its boundary? We study this in Jackiw–Teitelboim gravity, where spacetime volume provides a physical notion of time. We connect this bulk clock to a boundary clock and to the low-energy dynamics of the complex SYK model.

Diagram relating bulk unimodular time to a clock on the boundary thermal circle
Bulk and boundary clocks · Figure 3

2025

Unimodular Jackiw–Teitelboim gravity and de Sitter quantum cosmology

Bruno Alexandre, Altay Etkin and Farbod-Sayyed Rassouli

Physical Review D · 111 (2025), 124050

We extend Jackiw–Teitelboim gravity to include unimodular time, a physical clock conjugate to the cosmological constant. This lets us describe quantum cosmology through a Schrödinger-like evolution. We study how the probability of the universe’s size changes with this time, including expanding and contracting branches.

Four plots showing the probability distribution for the scale factor at different unimodular times
Quantum evolution of the scale factor · Figure 2

2024

Vortices, topology and time

Altay Etkin, João Magueijo and Farbod-Sayyed Rassouli

Physics Letters B · 855 (2024), 138810 · Preprint 2023

This work began during my master’s. We relate physical time to the topology of magnetic-field vortices. In a topological formulation of unimodular gravity, time is tied to helicity and the linking of vortex lines. The flow of time can then be understood as the weaving of further links.

Magnetic vortex configurations on two spatial slices, illustrating the relation between topology and time
Vortex topology and the flow of time · Figure 2

Earlier work and essays

I have kept a copy of my earlier Research page, with my undergraduate projects and writing about physics and philosophy. Some of it is old, but I wanted to keep it here.

Open the research archive →