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

Observing boson stars in binary systems: The case of Gaia BH1P. Passos, H. R. Olivares-Sánchez, J. A. Font, A. Onofre; arXiv:2504.09521 [astro-ph.HE].

Publication type
Regular Articles
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Proto-neutron star oscillations including accretion flowsD. Tseneklidou, R. Luna, P. Cerdá-Durán, A. Torres-Forné; arXiv:2503.16317 [astro-ph.HE].

Publication type
Regular Articles
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Bondi-like Accretion Flow Dynamics: The Role of Gravitational Potential, R. Ranjbar, H. R. Olivares-Sánchez, S. Abbassi; arXiv:2502.12101 [astro-ph.HE]

Publication type
Regular Articles
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General relativistic quasi-spherical accretion in a dark matter halo, R. Ranjbar, H. R. Olivares-Sánchez; arXiv:2502.12072 [astro-ph.HE]

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Regular Articles
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The persistent shadow of the supermassive black hole of M87 II. Model comparisons and theoretical interpretations, K. Akiyama et al. (w/ H. Olivares); Astron. Astrophys. 693 (2025) A265

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Regular Articles
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Latest Astrophysics News & Events

ROXAS: a spectral code for isolated neutron stars oscillations

GGD - Gr@V Seminar
Speaker
Gaël Servignat (Laboratoire Astroparticule et Cosmologie)
Event date
Venue
Hybrid: room 11.2.21 and Zoom
Event type
Relativistic hydrodynamics has undergone major development over the past three decades, notably through high-resolution shock-capturing schemes enabled by conservative formulations of the relativistic fluid equations.

Visual Signatures of Scalar Hair in the Images of Accretion Disks and Shadows of Rotating Hairy Black Holes

GGD - Gr@V Seminar
Speaker
Galin Gyulchev (Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”)
Event date
Venue
Hybrid: room 10.3.7 (DEGEIT) and Zoom
Event type

We examine the images and shadows of thin accretion disks around rotating hairy black holes characterized by two non-trivial, time-periodic scalar fields, whose target space possesses non-flat Gaussian curvature.

Turbulence in Magnetised Neutron Stars

GGD - Gr@V Seminar
Speaker
William Cook (Theoretical Physics Institute, Friedrich-Schiller University Jena)
Event date
Venue
Hybrid: room 11.2.25 and Zoom
Event type

The magnetic field configuration in the interior of Neutron Stars is an open problem and may be impacted by the influence of a turbulent cascade within the star. Assessing the impact of turbulent flow with numerical simulations requires incredibly high resolution as well as long lived simulations covering multiple Alfven times.

Gonçalo Gonçalves

Full Name: Goncalo Filipe Mota GoncalvesGonçalo Gonçalves
 

Postion: PhD Student
 

Degrees: Msc in Theoretical Physics, Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto, 2024; BSC in Physics, Faculty of Sciences of the University of Coimbra, 2021