Events Archive

This year, NASA is beginning its search for a Probe-class ($1B) mission to fly in ~2032. This once-per-decade opportunity was endorsed by astro2020 as a way to achieve some of the science promised by the more complex and expensive far-infrared and X-ray missions that were prepared for the decadal survey.

"On a background Minkowski spacetime, the relativistic Euler equations are known, for a relatively general equation of state, to admit unstable homogeneous solutions with finite-time shock formation. By contrast, such shock formation can be suppressed on background cosmological spacetimes whose spatial slices expand at an accelerated rate.

Abstract: One can paraphrase Penrose’s strong cosmic censorship conjecture as stating that general relativity is generically a deterministic theory. While the full conjecture remains wide open there has long been evidence pointing towards its validity at least for small perturbations of exact rotating Kerr black holes.

Abstract:

Guided by the principles of effective field theory, I will discuss three consecutive avenues to constrain physics beyond General Relativity with black-hole observations.

In this talk, we introduce and solve the characteristic gluing problem for the Einstein vacuum equations. We prove that obstructions to characteristic gluing come from an infinite-dimensional space of conservation laws along null hypersurfaces for the linearized equations at Minkowski.

Abstract:

Gravitational waves from the coalescence of compact binaries provide a unique opportunity to test gravity in the strong field regime. In particular, the postmerger phase of the gravitational signal is a proxy for the nature of the remnant. 

The discovery of the quark-gluon plasma that forms in heavy-ion collision experiments provides a unique opportunity to study the properties of matter under extreme conditions, as the quark-gluon plasma is the hottest, smallest, and densest fluid known to humanity.