Gr@v

The first meeting of the Numerical Relativity and High Energy Physics Network will take place at Aveiro University, from 9-13 July 2012. This meeting will bring together researchers from Brazil, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the USA, to discuss the state of the art in relativistic gravity and its application in various contexts, ranging from astrophysics to particle physics, using both anaytical and numerical techniques. 

Theoretical arguments suggest that an ultra-relativistic particle collision forms a black hole with a strong emission of gravitational radiation. A study by a team of Gr@v researchers, published in Physical Review Letters, shows that this radiation follows a remarkable and mysterious pattern.

Shinji Hirano and Yuki Sato, from Nagoya University and the Niels Bohr Institute, visited our group in early March to continue developing, with Gr@v members, a new model of gravity ("n-DBI gravity" [1], [2]) recently proposed.

Two new postdoctoral researchers, Jai Grover (Ph.D. Cambridge University, UK, 2011) and João Rosa (Ph.D. Oxford University, UK, 2010) will join our research team, in the area of relativistic gravitation and high energy physics, in 2012. Welcome Jai and João!

Miguel Zilhão, who wil be finishing his Ph.D. in the summer of 2012, has taken a post-doctoral offer from the Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation (CCRG) at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT),  a world leading group in the area of Numerical Relativity. Congratulations Miguel! 

In the summer 2011, an exciting workshop took place in the beautiful island of Madeira, where a small number of top international experts in the fields of numerical relativity (NR) and various aspects of high energy physics (HEP), exchanged viewpoints and expertises in order to create synergies between these two communities. As an outcome of the fruitful round tables and discussions, a white paper was written.

The rotation of Mercury is presently trapped in a 3/2 spin-orbit resonance. This means that the planet rotates three times about its spin axis for every two orbits about the Sun. However, recent observations with the Messenger spacecraft have shown that it was not always so. 

The European Commission Research Executive Agency has approved an International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES) Marie Curie action on "Numerical Relativity and High Energy Physics" (NRHEP), within the FP7 People Programme.

From astrophysics to high-energy physics, from information theory to quantum gravity, black holes have acquired an ever increasing role in fundamental physics, and are now part of the terminology of many important branches of observational, theoretical and mathematical physics. This workshop aims at bringing together experts about black holes in all their aspects.