When the bosonic sector of the electroweak theory is minimally coupled to General Relativity, magnetic Reissner-Nordström black holes become unstable below a critical horizon size. This instability is caused by electroweak condensation – a phenomenon first identified in flat space in the late 1980s, occurring when extremely strong magnetic fields destabilize the usual Higgs vacuum. Around a magnetic black hole, this process breaks the original spherical symmetry of the configuration and produces an "electroweak hair" made of massive W, Z and Higgs fields. We investigate these hairy black holes at the fully nonlinear level, restricting our analysis to the axially symmetric case. We find that the hair features two loops of oppositely directed electric currents that generate a magnetic field with a quadrupolar structure. In the extremal limit, the electroweak gauge symmetry is restored near the horizon. Remarkably, the extremal hairy black holes can reach macroscopic sizes, with horizon radii on the order of a centimeter. Our solutions provide the first example of hairy black holes arising purely within the framework of the Standard Model and General Relativity.
Black holes with electroweak hair
Next Seminar
Photon rings and shadows of Kerr black holes immersed in a swirling universe
Next Journal Club
Discussion of the paper "On the formation of gravastars", by D. Jampolskiet al.
Black Hole Workshops
Next workshop:
XVIII Black Holes Workshop, Lisbon, 2025
18-19 December 2025
Previous workshops in the series:
I Black Holes Workshop, Porto, 2008
II Black Holes Workshop, Lisbon, 2009
III Black Holes Workshop, Minho, 2010
IV Black Holes Workshop, Aveiro, 2011
V Black Holes Workshop, Lisbon, 2012
VI Black Holes Workshop, Minho 2013
VII Black Holes Workshop, Aveiro 2014
VIII Black Holes Workshop, Lisbon 2015
IX Black Holes Workshop, Minho 2016
X Black Holes Workshop, Aveiro 2017
XI Black Holes Workshop, Lisbon, 2018
XII Black Holes Workshop, Minho, 2019
XIII Black Holes Workshop, Lisbon, 2020
XIV Black Holes Workshop, Aveiro, 2021
XV Black Holes Workshop, Lisbon, 2022
XVI Black Holes Workshop, Porto, 2023
XVII Black Holes Workshop, Aveiro, 2024
Numerical data
NewFunFICO network
Our group coordinates the Marie Sklodowska Curie Staff Exchange NewFunFiCO network (Jan 2023- Dec 2026)
More info here
FunFiCO Network
Our group coordinates the Marie Curie RISE FunFiCO network (Dec 2017- Dec 2023)
More info here
EuCAPT Consortium
GWVerse COST
StronGrHEP Network
Our group was part of the RISE StronGrHEP network (2016-2019)
Meetings:
Paris, 12-13 May 2016
Azores, 3-8 July 2017
Osaka, 4-8 September 2017
NRHEP Network Meetings
Our group coordinated the "Numerical Relativity and High Energy Physics" IRSES network (2012-2015). Here is a list of the global network meetings organized:
First Meeting:
9-13 July 2012, Aveiro, Portugal
Second Meeting:
11-14 March 2013, Lisbon, Portugal
Third Meeting:
6-10 January 2014, Mississippi, USA
Fourth Meeting:
7-10 July 2015, Rome, Italy
Fifth Meeting:
28 Sep-2 Oct 2015, Belém, Brazil
Ph.D. and Post-doctoral opportunities
Contact us If you are interested in pursuing graduate studies/research in our group.
Information for prospective Ph.D. students can be found here.
Past Ph.D. theses from our group can be found here.
Working as a researcher in Portugal - a quick guide.