Despite the plethora of evidence of the existence and abundance of dark matter we have from large scale cosmological observations, there is still little we know of its properties or its behaviour on small scales. A promising way to test this is through the effects it may have on the gravitational wave signal from black hole binary mergers.
Are you interested in doing research in topics such as black hole physics/mathematics, gravitational waves, numerical relativity, cosmology and high energy particle physics? Do you have (or are you finishing) a M.Sc. degree in Physics or Maths?
If so, and you would like pursue a PhD at Gr@v, there's a few steps you need to follow.
The observation of the shadow of the supermassive black hole M87∗ by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is sensitive to the spacetime geometry near the circular photon orbit and beyond, and it thus has the potential to test general relativity in the strong field regime.
K-essence is a cosmologically relevant scalar-tensor theory that involves first-order derivative self-interactions, which pass all existing gravitational wave bounds and provides a screening mechanism. In this talk, I will present our results about the effect of this screening mechanism in non-linear stellar oscillations and gravitational collapse by using numerical relativity simulations.
Our group coordinated the "Numerical Relativity and High Energy Physics" IRSES network (2012-2015). Here is a list of the global network meetings organized:
