New FCT funded research positions and doctoral grant
In the 5th FCT individual contest for stimulous of research, Miguel Zilhão, Guilherme Raposo and Hector Olivares obtained 6 years research positions to join Gr@v.
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 News & Events
A waveform catalogue for Proca star collisions
The detection of gravitational waves has been one of the most exciting scientific developments of the XXIst century. These detections are theory-driven, they rely on the existence of waveform libraries, which have been constructed for binary black holes and neutron stars. Gr@v members have collaborated on the construction of the first waveform catalogue for exotic compact objects, an effort led by former Gr@v member Nicolas Sanchis Gual (now at the U. Valencia).
Webinar for Lanzhou University
C. Herdeiro was the invited speaker for the Research Center of Gravitation at Lanzhou University, China, webinar on 27/7/2022.
2022 FCT Call for R&D projects
The project "Gravitational waves, black holes, and fundamental physics" led by M. Zilhão (co-PI C.Herdeiro), fully based at Aveiro U., was one of the six Scientific Research and Technological Development Projects selected for funding in the 2022 FCT Call for R&D projects in the Physics panel. All results can be seen here.
The fate of the light-ring instability
In the paper "The fate of the light-ring instability" Gr@v members P. Cunha, C. Herdeiro and E. Radu, together with former member, currently at the U. Valencia, N. Sanchis-Gual, have unveiled the mystery of the fate of a large class of horizonless ultracompact objects, that could be potential black hole foils.
A long standing intriguing possibility is if the astrophysical black hole candidates could be some other kind of mysterious objects but without event horizons, the defining property of black holes.