Vitor Cardoso receives Simons Foundation grant for strong gravity research

Global network emerging

GW science represents one of the best means to probe the physics of strong gravity. Vitor Cardoso, Director of Center of Gravity and NBI Physics Professor, says the time to build this global network of multidisciplinary strong-gravity and black-hole experts is now.

“This is a time for revolutions. Gravity is one of the pillars of theoretical physics, yet so much is unknown or simply not right with that description”, says Cardoso. “Through our collaboration, we will work to understand gravity in the most dynamic and violent astrophysical environments, when black holes collide, and gravity is dynamical and strongly nonlinear. Our focus will be on strong gravity as predicted in Einstein’s theory, strong gravity in proposed theoretical extensions of general relativity, and on how to extract the strong-gravity features from the data to make robust inferences. GWs are unique messengers that can tell us about what’s happening with strong gravity in these extreme environments.”

Astrophysical puzzles will be unravelled – or that’s the ambition

The new collaboration will develop the theoretical framework necessary to demystify persistent astrophysical puzzles, shedding new light on the nature of black holes.

Through this work, GW data may be used to elucidate the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe, the nature of dark matter, and physics that potentially diverges from Einstein’s theory of general relativity, including the fundamental incompatibilities of quantum mechanics and gravity.

High hopes for the network architecture

Prof. Cardoso notes, “We are very grateful to the Simons Foundation for recognizing the need for a large-scale, organized effort devoted to strong gravity that includes many key players around the globe.

All co-PIs are at the forefront of innovation in perturbation theory, mathematical relativity, numerical relativity, observational gravity, Bayesian data analysis, and machine learning.”