Strong Gravity

The group's research on strong gravity involves finding analytical and numerical solutions of Einstein's theory of general relativity, and many of its extensions, either in vacuum or coupled to various types of matter. For our latest developments/activities in this area, please see the listing at the end of this article.

The prime examples of (relativistic) strong gravitational systems are Black Holes. They are truly unifying objects of all physics. The understanding of their formation and dynamics requires the laws of all four fundamental forces, and their physics is relevant not only for astrophysics and cosmology but for a variety of topics within high energy physics.

See here a movie made by the COST action `Black holes in a violent universe', in which our group participates, for a visual overview of different types of black holes.

Latest Strong Gravity Publications

Gravitational waves from two scalar fields unifying the dark sector with inflation, O. Luongo, T. Mengoni, P. M. Sá; arXiv:2509.21200 [gr-qc]

Publication type
Regular Articles
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Splitting the Gravitational Atom: Instabilities of Black Holes with Synchronized/Resonant Hair, J. Nicoules, J. Ferreira, C. A. R. Herdeiro, E. Radu, M. Zilhão; arXiv:2509.20450 [gr-qc].

Publication type
Regular Articles
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Phase transitions of boson stars in scalar-tensor theories, H. Huang, B. Kleihaus, J. Kunz, Meng-Yun Lai, E. Radu, De-Cheng Zou; arXiv:2509.05202 [gr-qc]

Publication type
Regular Articles
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Horizon-scale variability of from 2017--2021 EHT observations, The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration (w/ H. R. O. Sánchez); Accepted for publication in Astron. Astrophys., arXiv:2509.24593 [astro-ph.HE]

Publication type
Regular Articles
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Bounding anisotropic Lorentz Invariance Violation from measurements of the effective energy scale of quantum gravity, M. Guerrero, A. Campoy-Ordaz, R. Potting, M. Gaug; arXiv:2508.02883 [astro-ph.HE]

Publication type
Regular Articles
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See Strong Gravity publications

Latest Strong Gravity News & Events

Black hole scalarization with spontaneous symmetry breaking

GGD - Gr@V Seminar
Speaker
Sebastian Garcia-Saenz (Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech))
Event date
Venue
Online (Teams)
Event Website
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_MTljZWJjOTMtMmQ3MS00ZmZl…
Event type
Seminars

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.

Strong Gravity
Astrophysics

Quasi-integrability in classical field theories

GGD - Gr@V Seminar
Speaker
Paulo E. G. Assis (Universidade Federal de Catalão)
Event date
Venue
Hybrid: Sala Sousa Pinto and Teams
Event Website
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_Mjc2NDU2ZGEtYmI0Yy00NjY3…
Event type
Seminars

We present a general inverse scattering formalism for systems with quasi-zero curvature representations, extending the tools of integrable models to the quasi-integrable setting.

Strong Gravity
Other

Discussion of the paper "The Great Impersonation: W-Solitons as Prototypical Black Hole Microstates", by A. Dima et al.

Speaker
Eugen Radu (U. Aveiro)
Event date
Venue
Hybrid: Room Sousa Pinto and Microsoft Teams
Ends on
Event type
Journal Clubs

The Great Impersonation: W-Solitons as Prototypical Black Hole Microstates

Alexandru Dima, Pierre Heidmann, Marco Melis, Paolo Pani, Gela Patashuri

arXiv:2509.18245 [gr-qc]
Strong Gravity
See Strong Gravity News & Events