The 2020 FCT call for Scientific Research & Technological Development projects had 5847 applications, of which 3317 were considered eligible and 312 recommended for funding. In the Physical Sciences panel there were 139 applications; Gr@v's project, led by C.Herdeiro, a synergy between the different expertise of the group (strong gravity, astrophysics and high energy physics) was ranked first.
Pedro Cunha was one of the 7 selected researchers for a junior grant, nationwide, within 76 applicants in the Physical Sciences panel, in the third individual call for scientific employment stimulus, promoted by FCT. Pedro (re)joined our group as a post-doc in October 2020, after being a post-doctoral researcher at the Max Planck institute for gravitational physics in Golm, Germany. Congratulations Pedro!
Nicolas Sanchis-Gual, the only member of the LIGO-Virgo-Kagra collaboration working in Portugal, officially joined Gr@v and our research unit CIDMA. After his Ph.D. from the University of Valencia, Nico worked as a postdoctoral researcher at CENTRA-IST. He is an expert on Numerical Relativity and Gravitational Waves from dynamical binaries. Welcome Nico!
C. Herdeiro delivered an invited 5 lectures mini-course for Beijing Normal University on "Asymptotically flat black holes with hair in D=4", from October 13 to 27. The host was Professor Hongbao Zhang.
It is widely believed that the fast rotation of a massive star affects the dynamics of core-collapse and eventually results in the most luminous event in the present universe, the long gamma-ray burst (LGRB). Another important consequence of the fast rotation would be an energetic supernova explosion, which is often observed to be associated with LGRBs.
Stellar Compact object mergers are not only important sources of gravitational waves but also central engines that power electromagnetic transients and r-processes, if matter is involved. I will review recent progress modeling the merger of black hole-neutron star and neutron stars binaries highlighting state-of-the-art general relativistic hydrodynamic 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: