Start here

A job, not a celebrity. Read these, then pick an open problem that still fits on a page.

Reading order

Mazur & Mottola, Universe 9, 88 (2023), arXiv:gr-qc/0109035
Mottola, Springer chapter (2023), arXiv:2302.09690
Mottola, Phys. Rev. D 111, 104018 (2025), arXiv:2502.02519
Optional EFT backbone: Mottola, JHEP 11, 037 (2022), the effective theory of gravity and dynamical vacuum energy

Then the rest of the Scholar list. Do not start from a CV.

Open problems that still need a paper

Rotation. The EFT construction is under control for the non-rotating case. A Kerr analog with a well-posed surface, frame dragging, and a discrete spectrum is the thing phenomenologists can actually compare to LVK.
Formation. Collapse with a nucleating de Sitter core is no longer empty as a subject — see e.g. the 2026 Phys. Rev. D letter on forming a gravastar from dust. The remaining work is how generic that is, and what happens when the progenitor is spinning.
Echo templates. LVK needs waveforms they can search, not a metaphor. Discrete surface modes, time delay as a function of compactness, and a template that dies into detector noise the way a real echo would.
Electromagnetic distinction. EHT polarimetry, photon-ring substructure, and possible light echoes. The exterior is Schwarzschild or Kerr to first look. The question is which next decimal place is not.

The kill-shots already on the table

Echo claims in early LIGO data were about 1.5σ. The collaboration called it noise. Searches in O3, and later model-agnostic work on loud events including GW150914, found no significant post-merger echoes and set amplitude limits. Cite those papers. If your model predicts a loud gong in existing data, the model is already in trouble.

The 2023 Universe review already says the ringdown is not yet precise enough to test the discrete spectrum. Write into that gap. Do not write around it.

Questions: emottola@unm.edu.