Spontaneous scalarization of black holes may be understood in the language of symmetry breaking, with the scalar field condensate serving as order parameter. This motivates the study of theories with more interesting symmetry breaking patterns, i.e. beyond the simplest real scalar case.
As part of the celebrations marking 10 years of gravitational wave observations, the Aveiro outreach centre Fábrica presents the exhibition Traces of Curvature (Traços de curvatura). This artistic retrospective reflects on the scientific work in strong gravity carried out at the University of Aveiro, which now celebrates its 15th anniversary.
The 2015 Gr@v paper "Shadows of Kerr black holes with scalar hair", published in Physical Review Letters (making the cover of the publication issue), has reached 500 citations in the INSPIRE database.
In July 2025 we had several Group visitors, including Rui Santos (U. Lisbon), António Morais (U. Minho) and Kunihito Uzawa (Keio University and Kwansei Gakuin University).
Two 4-month post-doctoral grants are open within the project 2024.05617.CERN, "Towards precision tests of ultralight dark matter with imaging and gravitational waves". Applications should be submitted between 20 June 2025 and 10 July 2025. More info in the attached files and the Euraxess site.
Our group coordinated the "Numerical Relativity and High Energy Physics" IRSES network (2012-2015). Here is a list of the global network meetings organized:
