Abstract: With the numerous pieces of evidence for the close evolution of super-massive black holes (SMBHs) and their host galaxies throughout the cosmic history, there has been a great effort to understand what drives such fact. One key point which could help achieve that goal is to observe the very first SMBHs in the early Universe and explore the initial conditions and what sets such co-evolution. This talk will guide you through the observational perspectives of this cosmic dance between SMBHs and their hosts, and the some alternative strategies to study them.
Abstract: In this talk, we introduce the field of General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD) and give an overview on recent effort toward simulating and visualizing astrophysically realistic gas dynamics around compact binaries. In particular we motivate our group's approach, where a post-Newtonian expansion is used to construct an analytic spacetime, and we show preliminary results of circumbinary disks surrounding an equal-mass non-spinning black hole binary.
Abstract: Callegari and Rodríguez (2013) numerically show that, in the domain of the classical model of spin-orbit resonances developed for natural satellites and Mercury, (Goldreich & Peale 1966), the rotation of super-earths with orbital period P
Juan Carlos Degollado Daza, who has been a post-doctoral research at Gr@v since 2012, working on numerical relativity, has accepted a permanent professor position at the University of Guadalajara, Mexico. Congratulations Juan Carlos, well done!
"Black holes have no hair" - is a famous `mantra' coined by John Wheeler in 1971, to express that astrophysical black holes should all have very similar physical properties. In a paper to appear in Physical Review Letters, however, Gr@v researchers C. Herdeiro and E. Radu showed that actually astrophysical black holes need not be bald!
Abstract: I will present the results of an observing campaign performed with the TNG telescope which aim was to study the transmission spectrum of HAT-P-1b. I will present the observations, data analysis and compare the results with previous observations of this target and with theoretical models predictions.
Abstract: M dwarfs are the faintest, coldest and smallest stars in the main sequence. Ubiquitous and long lived, M dwarfs comprise about 70% of all stars in the Galaxy and around half of its baryonic matter. However, despite being so omnipresent and close-by, not a single M dwarf can be seen with the naked eye, due to their very low intrinsic brightness.
Abstract: The discovery of more than 900 planets orbiting other stars than our Sun makes this period very exciting. Our knowledge which was based on the Solar System has been challenged by new planetary systems which are very different from our system. Some of them are much more compact than the Solar System. Some planets are located extremely close-in from their star, within the orbital distance of Mercury, in a region where tidal effects are important. Understanding the structure of the known exoplanetary systems and the future ones requires to take into account the physics of tidal evolution.
I will talk about the dynamical and tidal evolution of planetary systems orbiting evolving brown dwarfs. Close-in planets orbiting brown dwarfs are very interesting to study because they are influenced by tides and they can be in the habitable zone: the region around a star where a planet with an atmosphere can have water on its surface. I will show that tides are important for these systems because it has an effect on the possible habitability of planets.
Our group coordinated the "Numerical Relativity and High Energy Physics" IRSES network (2012-2015). Here is a list of the global network meetings organized:
