Yoann Launay
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Researcher in Theoretical Cosmology

PhD student in early-universe cosmology at DAMTP (Cambridge), sharing news, research and resources on cosmology, outreach, and more…

Doctor who?

Outside DAMTP in Cambridge

Research Talk in Paris

As a Norman born in Brittany and raised in a city with an undefined identity (is Nantes a Breton land? It is the millennium question), Yoann was perhaps fated for problems. His first encounter with space, and most importantly cosmology, was NOT while watching the stars, an apple falling from a tree, a rocket launching, or while reading A Brief History of Time. Yoann simply doesn’t remember, because he just likes to learn a lot and has limited storage space. You can identify him as a fraud French, self-proclaimed Viking, who doesn’t want to talk about croissants and Paris at the first occasion.


Credit: Doctor Who. BBC, 2005–present.

After realising that zookeeper was not his destiny, that heart surgeon would take too long to study, and that politics… well, anyway, he decided to do something involving maths. (!Nerd alert!) Maths were comforting and felt right, until an existential overdose when he realised that maybe he liked it mainly as a tool to answer day-to-day questions. He had a great time doing Physics in a Grande Ecole in Paris, followed by a master’s in Cambridge. He started his academic research journey at the former, where he worked on reconstructing the quantum structure of crystals. In Cambridge, he started looking into theoretical physics, and eventually his own series of why? questions converged (or diverged?) towards asking how? about the whole thing (more commonly called the Universe).

In the past 3+ years, Yoann has studied the early, fast-expanding universe by extending Einstein’s equations of General Relativity to fluctuations generated by the quantum vacuum. In this process, he has also looked at the classicalisation of spacetime correlations and has produced and run cutting-edge simulations of the inflating universe (and still does). Pen, paper and supercomputer is a lovely routine of his.

After work, Yoann goes to sleep. But before that, cooking his meal is usually the highlight of the day, when not topped by learning guitar for the billionth time. As a standard STEM cliche, Yoann is also into hiking and bouldering. Beyond that, what is there to say, beyond the fact that entropy is non-decreasing.

News

06/08/2026
My Thesis has been sent to my jury for examination! Viva planned in 2 months.
26/06/2026
After months sending applications, I finally said yes to a postdoctoral position in Krakow, Poland. Stay tuned for more details on a new topic of study!
08/05/2026
My new outreach article for Bluesci on Primordial Black Holes is out! see issue no. 63 here (page 42).
16/12/2025
My fourth PhD article is out! see preprint. The final proof of concept of my PhD project is now in the wild.
4/10/2025 – hopefully soon
Postdoc applications in progress…
3/10/2025
End of a great placement, closing with a paper sent to a Machine Learning conference! see submission.
16/03/2025
Now confirmed: as part of my PhD requirements, I will be doing a placement, which I chose to do at Featurespace from April and for six months!
12/02/2025
My third PhD article and first with spacetime simulations is out! see preprint.
11/02/2025
An interesting article where my simulations are featured.
05/01/2025
My second PhD article is out! see preprint.
02/04/2024
I will be one of the Smith-Knight and Rayleigh-Knight 2024 Prize recipients!
16/01/2024
I published my first article in cosmology! see preprint.
1/11/2023
My first feature article for Bluesci, see issue no. 58 here (page 26).
1/11/2023
New book review article in Bluesci, see issue no. 57 here (page 5).
7/04/2023
G-Research grant obtained! see article.

Highlights

Lessons from an academic tour of Europe by train
August 18, 2026
A month-long, train-only research tour across Europe, and what it taught me about sustainable academia.

Wolfson Research Event 2026
May 7, 2026
I was invited to present my work at an interdisciplinary conference organised by my College, the Wolfson Research Event.

My Thesis in 12 sketches.
February 15, 2024
Twelve hand-drawn sketches summarising my PhD thesis on stochastic inflation and numerical relativity.

Publications

Stochastic scalar-tensor inflation and beyond
Y. Launay · arXiv preprint · 2026-06-05
Extends the stochastic formalism for how quantum vacuum fluctuations become classical during inflation to scalar-tensor theories, covering Gauss-Bonnet, generalized Brans-Dicke, Horndeski and braiding theories, plus multifield coarse-graining in full General Relativity.
Preprint
CosmologyInflationStochastic Methods
Stochastic Inflation in Numerical Relativity
Y. L. Launay, G. I. Rigopoulos, E. P. S. Shellard · Physical Review D 113 (12), 123515 (2026) · 2025-12-16
Re-derives the 3+1 stochastic inflation equations in a gauge-invariant manner and implements them numerically in the BSSN formulation, showing correct evolution and well-satisfied constraints for slow-roll and ultra-slow-roll scenarios.
PreprintArticle
CosmologyNumerical RelativityStochastic Methods
Fairness-Aware Test-Time Prompt Tuning
Y. Launay, P. Kamalaruban, T. Kempton, S. Burrell, D. Sutton · Machine learning conference submission (Featurespace placement, 2025)
A test-time prompt tuning method for improving fairness in language model outputs without retraining the underlying model, developed during a machine learning placement at Featurespace.
Preprint
Machine LearningFairness
DMAP: A Distribution Map for Text
T. Kempton, J. Rozanova, P. Kamalaruban, M. Madigan, K. Wresilo, Y. L. Launay, D. Sutton, S. Burrell · International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR) 2026 · 2026-02-12
A technique that maps text, via a language model, to samples encoding rank and probability information, used to validate generation parameters, analyse synthetic-text detection, and uncover statistical patterns in models trained on artificial data.
PreprintArticle
Machine LearningNLP
Bunch-Davies initial conditions and non-perturbative inflationary dynamics in Numerical Relativity
Y. L. Launay, G. I. Rigopoulos, E. P. S. Shellard · Physical Review D 112 (4), 043518 (2025) · 2025-02-10
Shows that realistic inhomogeneities during inflation can be simulated with Numerical Relativity from stochastic Bunch-Davies-consistent initial conditions, across a quadratic potential, an inflection-point potential, and a strong resonance model.
PreprintArticle
CosmologyNumerical Relativity
Quantitative classicality in cosmological interactions during inflation
Y. L. Launay, G. I. Rigopoulos, E. P. S. Shellard · Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics 2025 (05), 071 · 2024-12-20
Introduces a quantitative 'quantum interactivity' measure for when classical descriptions of inflationary perturbations suffice, showing non-linear contributions can be accurately described classically even before horizon crossing.
PreprintArticle
CosmologyInflation
Stochastic Inflation in General Relativity
Y. L. Launay, G. I. Rigopoulos, E. P. S. Shellard · Physical Review D 109 (12), 123523 (2024) · 2024-01-16
Presents a framework for stochastic inflation using complete General Relativity, deriving gauge-invariant Langevin source terms for the Einstein equations in ADM and BSSN formulations, enabling numerical relativity simulations.
PreprintArticle
CosmologyInflationStochastic Methods
N-representable one-electron reduced density matrices reconstruction at non-zero temperatures
Y. Launay, J.-M. Gillet · Acta Crystallographica Section B: Structural Science, Crystal Engineering and Materials 77 (5), 683-694 · 2021
Reconstructs one-electron reduced density matrices from X-ray structure factors and Compton profiles while accounting for atomic thermal motion, using Semi-Definite Programming to recover static, N-representable matrices from experimental data at non-zero temperature.
Article
Quantum Crystallography

They financed or supported my work

  • Featurespace
  • DiRAC UK
  • DAMTP
  • G-Research
  • Data-intensive CDT Program
  • UKRI
  • Wolfson College

Contact

Email: yl844 at cam.ac.uk

Office: Center for Mathematical Sciences, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge, CB3 0WA, United Kingdom.

 

Yoann L. Launay • PhD Student in Early Universe Cosmology • Cambridge