Gravitational wave detections, images of black hole shadows, and other impressive developments in observational astronomy allow us to study strong gravity systems in a completely new way. Being immersed in the universe, these systems are surrounded by plasma, which can be described by the equations of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD).
The detection of gravitational waves has been one of the most exciting scientific developments of the XXIst century. These detections are theory-driven, they rely on the existence of waveform libraries, which have been constructed for binary black holes and neutron stars. Gr@v members have collaborated on the construction of the first waveform catalogue for exotic compact objects, an effort led by former Gr@v member Nicolas Sanchis Gual (now at the U. Valencia).
The black hole merger in scalar-Gauss-Bonnet gravity can lead to dynamical descalarization this is a spontaneous release of the scalar
hair of the newly formed black hole. Depending on the exact form of the Gauss-Bonnet coupling function, the stable scalarized solutions
Compact stars due to their enormous gravitational field can accumulate a sizable amount of dark matter in their interior. Depending on its nature, an accumulated dark matter may affect the properties of neutron stars in quite different ways. I will give an overview of the impact of dark matter on various observable properties of neutron stars, i.e.
The theory of General Relativity has successfully passed a large number of observational tests. The theory has been extensively tested in the weak-field regime with experiments in the Solar System and observations of binary pulsars.
In the paper "The fate of the light-ring instability" Gr@v members P. Cunha, C. Herdeiro and E. Radu, together with former member, currently at the U. Valencia, N. Sanchis-Gual, have unveiled the mystery of the fate of a large class of horizonless ultracompact objects, that could be potential black hole foils.
A long standing intriguing possibility is if the astrophysical black hole candidates could be some other kind of mysterious objects but without event horizons, the defining property of black holes.
The project "Gravitational waves, black holes, and fundamental physics" led by M. Zilhão (co-PI C.Herdeiro), fully based at Aveiro U., was one of the six Scientific Research and Technological Development Projects selected for funding in the 2022 FCT Call for R&D projects in the Physics panel. All results can be seen here.
Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions fund post-doctoral fellowships. A call is currently open (until 14 September 2022). Aveiro University and our group can host appropriate candidates for these grants. Please contact the group coordinator (C. Herdeiro) in case you are interested in applying.
Our group coordinated the "Numerical Relativity and High Energy Physics" IRSES network (2012-2015). Here is a list of the global network meetings organized:
