Abstract: In a number of very exciting present and future astrophysical challenges, such as the detection of ExoEarths and the characterization of their atmosphere, high resolution infra-red spectroscopy provides an invaluable help. However, in this domain, the telluric contamination is a major limitation that needs to be addressed thoroughly. We need no less than a full, accurate and detailed knowledge of the earth atmosphere transmission at the time and location of the observations and in the direction of the target. In this talk, we will show the reasons why this is best done by modelling the earth atmosphere, and why this motivated us to develop the web based platform that will take the name of ULME.
Abstract: The intrinsically faint M dwarfs are the most numerous stars in the Galaxy, have main-sequence lifetimes longer than the Hubble time, and host some of the most interesting planetary systems known to date. Their identification and classification throughout the Galaxy is crucial to unraveling the processes involved in the formation of planets, stars and the Milky Way. The ESO Public Survey VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea is a deep near-IR survey mapping the Galactic bulge and southern plane. The VVV b201 tile, located in the border of the bulge, was specifically selected for the characterisation of M dwarfs.
A large review paper, "Testing General Relativity with past and future Astrophysical observations", arXiv:1501.07271, has been made public, prepared as a Topical Review for CQG. The review includes contributions from many international experts, including from our group, and was led by Emanuele Berti. Thank you Emanuele for pushing this team effort!
2015 marks the centennial of the General Theory of Relativity (GR), presented by Albert Einstein in 1915. Motivated by this celebration, understanding that GR is an important part of the scientific world heritage and recognizing the growing international influence of Portuguese researchers working in this area, the "Portuguese Society of Relativity and Gravitation" (SPRG) was formally established in 2015.
C. Herdeiro was the guest interviewee of Porto Canal's "Mentes que Brilham". Watch and listen to the conversation with interviewer Cláudia Fonseca about black holes and some of the research work made at Gr@v in this area.
From astrophysics to high-energy physics, from information theory to quantum gravity, black holes have acquired an ever increasing role in fundamental physics, and are now part of the terminology of many important branches of observational, theoretical and mathematical physics. This workshop aims at bringing together experts about black holes in all their aspects.
The fourth edition of the Black Holes Workshop will be held at the University of Aveiro in 18-19 December 2014.
Abstract: The origin of almost all space weather related phenomenology is the large scale solar magnetic field. In this talk I'll speak about the dynamo mechanism that is operating in the solar interior and generating this large scale field and how it is modeled. I'll briefly review the classical mean-field dynamo theoretical framework usually used to tackle this problem and how observational constraints modified it over the years. I'll highlight its achievements and problems. Than I'll introduce a more recent and complementary modelling approach: 3D MHD simulations of solar convection. These simulations only recently started to exhibit solar-like features paving the way to virtual laboratories of the Sun. The results presented in this talk are based on the EULAG-MHD code.
Abstract: With the numerous pieces of evidence for the close evolution of super-massive black holes (SMBHs) and their host galaxies throughout the cosmic history, there has been a great effort to understand what drives such fact. One key point which could help achieve that goal is to observe the very first SMBHs in the early Universe and explore the initial conditions and what sets such co-evolution. This talk will guide you through the observational perspectives of this cosmic dance between SMBHs and their hosts, and the some alternative strategies to study them.
Abstract: In this talk, we introduce the field of General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD) and give an overview on recent effort toward simulating and visualizing astrophysically realistic gas dynamics around compact binaries. In particular we motivate our group's approach, where a post-Newtonian expansion is used to construct an analytic spacetime, and we show preliminary results of circumbinary disks surrounding an equal-mass non-spinning black hole binary.
Our group coordinated the "Numerical Relativity and High Energy Physics" IRSES network (2012-2015). Here is a list of the global network meetings organized:
