Astrophysics

Astrophysics is an area concerning various physical ranging from planetary sized systems, to galactic scale systems and beyond, that intersects various disciplines such as Newtonian dynamics, relativistic physics and particle physics processes.

For our latest developments/activities in this area, please see the listing below at the end of this article.

Exoplanets

An exoplanet is a planet outside the Solar System. In the Milky Way galaxy, it is expected that there are many billions of planets (at least one planet, on average, orbiting around each star, resulting in 100–400 billion exoplanets), with many more free-floating planetary-mass bodies orbiting the galaxy directly.

We study the long-term dynamics of known multi-planet systems. This allow us to test the accuracy of the orbital parameters' determinations, as well as to understand how these systems evolved. We also look for the stable zones in the gaps between already-known planets in order to determine where is it possible to locate Earth-like planets.

See here a movie made by the PhD Animation on "Exoplanets Explained", for a review on the main observational methods used to detect exoplanets.


Latest Astrophysics Publications

General relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of accretion onto exotic compact objects, H. R. Olivares-Sánchez, P. Kocherlakota, C. A. R. Herdeiro; Contribution to the book "New Frontiers in GRMHD Simulations", Springer Singapore, Eds. C. Bambi, Y. Mizuno, S. Shashank and F. Yuan, expected in 2025 (37 pages), Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-97-8521-6, eBook ISBN: 978-981-97-8522-3, arXiv:2408.09893 [astro-ph.HE].

Publication type
Books
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First Sagittarius A* Event Horizon Telescope Results. VII. Polarization of the Ring, The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration (w/ H. Olivares); Astrophys. J. 964 (2024) L25.

Publication type
Regular Articles
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First Sagittarius A* Event Horizon Telescope Results. VIII. Physical Interpretation of the Polarized Ring, The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration (w/ H. Olivares); Astrophys. J. 964 (2024) L26.

Publication type
Regular Articles
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The imitation game reloaded: effective shadows of dynamically robust spinning Proca stars, I. Sengo, P. V. P. Cunha, C. A. R. Herdeiro, E. Radu; JCAP 05 (2024) 054; arXiv:2402.14919 [gr-qc].

Publication type
Regular Articles
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Ordered magnetic fields around the 3C 84 central black hole, G. F. Paraschos et al. (w/ H. Olivares); Astron. Astrophys. 682 (2024) L3, arXiv:2402.00927 [gr-qc].

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Regular Articles
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Latest Astrophysics News & Events

Slowly Rotating Accretion Flows around Supermassive Black Holes in Elliptical Galaxies

GGD - Gr@V Seminar
Speaker
Razieh Ranjbar (Ferdowsi University)
Event date
Venue
On-site: Sala Sousa Pinto
Event type

It has been believed that supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the majority of nearby galaxies in the universe are powered by accretion flows. Observational evidence and many numerical simulations show of elliptical galaxies have revealed a surprising fact, in the densest regions of massive elliptical galaxies the hot gas rotates very slowly.

Dinner with many visitors

On Wednesday 18, we gathered for a dinner in town to celebrate our many visitors. While Víctor Jaramillo (University of Science and Technology of China), Raimon Luna and Milton Ruiz (both from University of Valencia) joined us for a week, we also welcomed longer term guests Ana Bokulić (University of Zagreb) and Razieh Ranjbar (Ferdowsi University).