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.
The review by P. Cunha and C. Herdeiro on lensing and shadows, published as an Editor's choice in Gen. Rel. and Grav. in 2018 has attained over 500 citations in INSPIRE, showing the community interest on the topic.
One position for a BI grant for 3 months is open to join our group in CIDMA.
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).
The Spring Meeting of the Brazilian Physics Society will take place in São Luis do Maranhão (Brazil), from 30 Set - 3 Oct 2025. C. Herdeiro is one of the invited speakers.
BHaHAHA: A Fast, Robust Apparent Horizon Finder Library for Numerical Relativity
Zachariah B. Etienne, Thiago Assumpção, Leonardo Rosa Werneck, Samuel D. Tootle