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Category: Conferences

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12th Aegean Summer School, September 9-14, 2024, Sifnos, Greece

The aim of the 12th Aegean Summer School is to discuss the recent developments in theory in Gravity and Cosmology and in observations discussing the LIGO, VIRGO, LISA and BINGO experiments.

The 12th Aegean Summer School will take place in the town of Apollonia in the island of Sifnos, in the Cultural Centre “Marianthi Simou” and it is organized and sponsored by the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, the University Paris-Sud, Orsay, France, the University of Tuebingen, Germany, the University Nottingham, England, the University Sapienza, Rome, Italy, the University Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaiso, Chile, the University Sao Paulo, Brazil and the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST).

One of the most successful theory describing cosmic objects, their interactions and their time evolution, is the Einstein’s theory of Gravity. One of the main prediction of the Gravity theory is the existence of Gravitational Waves (GW), the ripples of space-time. The latest GW detections by ground-based interferometers and the discovery of a binary pulsar whose orbital period changes in accordance with the predicted GW emission, verified the predictions of the Einstein’s theory and opened up an intensive activity of understanding all aspects of the GWs and the implications of this discovery to alternative theories of Gravities and their Cosmological implications.

The modified gravity theories can give us important information on the structure and properties of the compact objects predicted by these theories and also the observational signatures which they can introduce. It is expected that future ground and space-borne detectors will improve our perception of gravitational interactions in particular will shed light into the existence of exotic compact objects, like hairy black holes and wormholes. These compact objects provide a window into the microscopic structure of spacetime in Quantum Gravity and the hope is to understand the nature of their interior, potential applications to Quantum Cosmology, and the development of further connections to quantum information and laboratory quantum simulation. The formation of these compact objects may also trigger possible holographic phase transitions to other compact objects.

School Website

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Seventh International Conferenceon the Nature and Ontology of Spacetime, September 16-19 2024

The spacetime conferences bring together physicists and philosophers and provide a forum where aspects and implications of the nature and ontology of spacetime are discussed. The Scientific Organizing Committee hopes that these meetings will become one of the preferred biennial forums for reporting research results and having fruitful discussions with colleagues.

To have an idea of the location and the hotel, see pictures taken during the Third Minkowski Meeting.

16-19 September 2024

Hotel Sandy Beach
Albena 9620 (near) Varna, Bulgaria

Organized by the Minkowski Institute (Montreal)

Conference Website

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Enabling Future Gravitational Wave Astrophysics in the Milli-Hertz Regime, 30 June – 25 July 2025, Garching

Join us to explore the uncharted milli-Hertz regime of the gravitational wave spectrum, a domain soon to be unlocked by space missions. With a special emphasis on the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission, our workshop also broadens its scope to include other milli-Hertz missions and aims to explore synergies with the next generation of ground-based gravitational wave detectors.
Valeriya Korol, Natalia Korsakova, Lucio Mayer, Martina Toscani, Niels Warburton

The milli-Hertz regime is unique due to the variety of gravitational wave sources emitting at these frequencies, including binaries of stellar remnants such as white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes within our own Galaxy, as well as inspiraling compact objects onto massive black holes (aka Extreme/Intermediate Mass Ratio Inspirals, E/IMRI) and mergers between nascent massive black holes (MBH) at cosmic dawn. This regime is also unique in terms of waveform modelling, data analysis and data interpretation, presenting challenges that call for a community-driven approach.

Our workshop will bring together leading experts and early career scientists in the field of theoretical modelling (from astrophysics to numerical relativity), electromagnetic observations, and gravitational wave data analysis, aiming to prepare the community for the new kind of gravitational wave data and to enable groundbreaking astrophysics in the milli-Hertz regime. The format will balance scientific talks, interactive tutorials, and open discussions, creating an ideal environment for initiating new collaborations and consolidating ongoing projects. More broadly, we strive to foster a community where interdisciplinary and creative collaborations can flourish.

Week 1 (30th June – 4th July): Astrophysical Modelling and Uncertainties

  • Review and assess state-of-the-art astrophysical models.
  • Identify gaps and uncertainties in mHz GW source modelling.

Key topics to be discussed include:

  • Robustness of stellar binary modelling against assumptions on stability of mass transfer, accretion onto compact objects, common envelopes, and tides.
  • Predicting MBH binaries/EMRI/IMRI event rates and their key waveform properties.
  • Existence and distribution of intermediate-mass black holes.
  • Synergies with upcoming electromagnetic surveys.

Week 2 (7th – 11th July): Waveform Modelling Challenges

  • Outline a road-map for addressing challenges in waveform modelling before 2030s.
  • Access the required waveform accuracy for the mHz data analysis.

Key questions to be discussed include:

  • Integrating post-Newtonian and numerical relativity simulations to provide predictions for waveforms under realistic orbital configuration of the mHz GW sources.
  • Explore the possibility of extending black hole perturbation theory for IMRIs.
  • Including environmental effects in GW waveforms.
  • Advances and applicability of emerging methods based on effective field theory and amplitude scattering techniques.

Week 3 (14th – 18th July): Data Analysis and Parameter Estimation

  • Discuss data analysis complexities; in particular challenges of the “global fit” approach.
  • Focus on precise source parameter estimation and accurate source subtraction to facilitate the analysis of stochastic backgrounds.

Key questions to be discussed include:

  • Utilising electromagnetic observations of Galactic binaries for instrument noise estimation.
  • Identify waveforms that effectively capture the diversity and complexity of astrophysical populations for each source type while optimising computational efficiency.
  • Formulate astrophysically motivated priors for the global fit analysis.
  • Discuss strategies for extracting astrophysical sources from GW data to analyse stochastic signals.

Week 4 (21st – 25th July): Data Interpretation via Astrophysical Models

  • Build upon insights from previous weeks’ discussions to explore the scientific interpretation of mHz GW data using astrophysical models.
  • Develop astrophysics-focused mock data challenges to prepare the community for future data interpretation.

Key questions to be discussed include:

  • Re-discovering our Galaxy using mHz GW detections.
  • Understanding MBH formation through GW detections.
  • Leveraging GW event rates to study physical processes in galactic nuclei.
  • Identifying promising electromagnetic counterparts for mHz GW sources

Please find here full details.

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COSMO’24, October 21-24 at Kyoto University

COSMO'24 will bring together a wide range of cosmologists and particle physicists to discuss current ideas on particle physics and cosmology.
Conference Website

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27th Capra Meeting on Radiation Reaction in General Relativity, June 17-21 2024, Singapore

The 27th Capra Meeting will be hosted at the National University of Singapore from the 17th-21st of June 2024, more details to follow.

The Capra meeting is an annual workshop on the topic of radiation reaction in general relativity. The primary focus of these workshops is the development of the gravitational self-force approach to model extreme mass ratio inspirals and further our understanding of the two-body problem in general relativity. This is done in synergy with other well known modeling techniques such as post-Newtonian theory and numerical relativity. The canonical example of an extreme mass-ratio Inspiral (EMRI) is the inspiral of a stellar-mass compact object into a supermassive black hole. Gravitational waves from these systems are a promising target for the future space-based detector LISA, which is currently scheduled to launch in the mid-2030’s by the European Space Agency with support from NASA. The study of radiation reaction and  self-force is not limited to EMRIs, and a range of topics and applications to other areas of gravitational physics have been discussed at past Capra meetings; an example is the scattering of massive particles, which is currently an active area of research. The format of the meeting is an amalgamation of a daily invited review talk, short contributed talks and organized discussion sessions. The tradition of the Capra meetings is that there is no registration fee for participating.

At the Capra meetings we provide equal opportunities regardless of gender, age, race, disability, ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, civil status, or family status.  We encourage all those with an interest in research on self-force and extreme mass-ratio inspirals to register for this meeting and apply to contribute a talk by submitting an abstract. Past and current attendees should encourage a broad spectrum of their colleagues to apply.

Meeting Website

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10th International Conference on Gravitation and Cosmology: New Horizons and Singularities in Gravity, Dec 6-9 2023 in India

The 10th International Conference on Gravitation and Cosmology (ICGC) will be hosted by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati, India during December 6 - 9, 2023. Since its inception in 1987, ICGC meetings are held once in four years and are organised by the Indian Association for General Relativity and Gravitation (IAGRG). The tenth edition of this conference at IIT Guwahati aims to bring together experts working in the area of Gravitation and Cosmology to discuss the recent developments, present status and exchange ideas while providing young researchers from India an opportunity for interaction with experts. The programme will have a series of plenary lectures, with parallel and poster sessions.

Topics to be covered during the meeting:

  • Classical & Quantum Gravity
  • Gravitational Waves
  • Astrophysical Relativity
  • Cosmology


Starts 06.12.2023, 09:00
Ends 09.12.2023, 18:00
at IIT Guwahati, Asia/Kolkata

Conference Website

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Gravitational Waves meet Amplitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, August 14 – September 1, 2023, ICTP-SAIFR, São Paulo

The central theme of the program will be the application of particle physics methods to the calculation of processes relevant to gravitational-wave phenomenology.

We intend to bring together both experts and younger theorists from three distinct communities:

  • Classical General Relativity, including both analytic and numerical approaches;
  • Effective Field Theories; and
  • Scattering Amplitudes.

We also want to bring theorists into contact with observers and analysis specialists from LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA.

We intend to have one talk a day, with lots of time available for informal discussions and collaboration. The building hosting the program is brand new with comfortable discussion areas, right next to the intended hotel in the tourist center of São Paulo. We hope to have fifteen to twenty people in residence each week.

This activity will be preceded by the School on Modern Amplitude Methods for Gauge and Gravity Theories. Selected students attending the school have the option of remaining as observers.

There is no registration fee.

Organizers:
Fernando Febres Cordero (Florida State University, USA)
David Kosower (Université Paris–Saclay, France)
Patricia Schmidt (University of Birmingham, UK)
Riccardo Sturani (ICTP-SAIFR/IFT-UNESP, Brazil)

Conference Website

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Gravitational Wave Physics and Astronomy Workshop (GWPAW) 2022, December 5-9, Melbourne

Registration and Abstract submissions are now open. Gravitational Wave Physics and Astronomy Workshop (GWPAW) 2022. The conference will be an in-person event taking place in Melbourne Australia, 5-9 December 2022. Hybrid participation will be possible for those who are unable to attend in person. Further details including registration and the exact conference venue will be finalised shortly.

Detailed information can be found on the GWPAW2022 website , and will be regularly updated with event details:

www.gwpaw2022.org