Strong Gravity

This course will introduce some advanced topics in general relativity related to describing gravity in the strong field and dynamical regime. Topics covered include properties of spinning black holes, black hole thermodynamics and energy extraction, how to define horizons in a dynamical setting, formulations of the Einstein equations as constraint and evolution equations, and gravitational waves and how they are sourced.

Review of elementary general relativity. Timelike and null geodesic congruences. Hypersurfaces and junction conditions. Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations of general relativity. Mass and angular momentum of a gravitating body. The laws of black-hole mechanics.

Zoom: https://pitp.zoom.us/j/97183751661?pwd=T0szNnRjdUM2dENYNTdmRmJCZVF1QT09

The Gravitational Physics course takes your knowledge and practice of gravity to the next level. We start by recapping the essential elements of differential geometry, adding some new techniques to the toolbox, then apply some of these methods to learning about submanifolds, extra dimensions, and black hole thermodynamics. Towards the end of the course, we delve into the frontiers, with a sample of recent research topics.

Unraveling the quantum nature of gravity is one of the most pressing problems of theoretical physics. Several ideas have been put forward and resulted in a number of theories of quantum gravity. While these theories have explored different facets of the “quantum gravity landscape”, all viable approaches should ultimately make contact with observations, and answer exciting questions in cosmology and black-hole physics.

Sharing knowledge, exchanging ideas, and building a dictionary between different theories are crucial steps toward answering these questions, efficiently contrasting different theories, and ultimately reaching a deeper understanding of our Universe.

This conference will contribute to these goals by bringing together leading experts in different approaches to quantum gravity, gravitational effective field theory, black-hole physics, and cosmology. We will focus on specific puzzles in quantum gravity and their resolutions within different approaches. The conference will be highly interactive, with plenty of time to discuss common problems, understand the big picture, and develop novel connections between fields.

Registration: Registration is now open, and both in-person and virtual participation is welcome. Online participants will be able to interact on an equal footing in question sessions and discussions. In-person attendance is limited and will be approved on a first-come, first-served basis. Talks are by invitation only, but in-person participants are encouraged to apply to present a poster.

Spam warning: There is an increasing number of scam agencies reaching out to conference speakers and attendees. Perimeter Institute does not use third-party agencies. We advise speakers and attendees to ignore emails and not to provide any details to anyone who is not from Perimeter Institute.  

Confirmed Speakers and Panelists:

• Abhay Ashtekar (Penn State University)
• Robert Brandenberger (McGill University)
• Luca Buoninfante (Nordita)
• Xavier Calmet (University of Sussex)
• Francesco di Filippo (Kyoto University)
• Bianca Dittrich (Perimeter Institute)
• John Donoghue (University of Massachusetts)
• Astrid Eichhorn (CP3-origins)
• Johanna Erdmenger (Würzburg University)
• Ghazal Geshnizjani (Perimeter Institute)
• Ruth Gregory (King's College)
• Lavinia Heisenberg (Heidelberg University)
• Bob Holdom (University of Toronto)
• Benjamin Knorr (Nordita)
• Renate Loll (Radboud University Nijmegen)
• Miguel Montero (IFT Madrid)
• Rob Myers (Perimeter Institute)
• Sabrina Pasterski (Perimeter Institute)
• Fernando Quevedo (Cambridge University)
• Lisa Randall (Harvard University)
• Kasia Rejzner (York University)
• Mairi Sakellariadou (King's College)
• Lee Smolin (Perimeter Institute)
• Kellogg Stelle (Imperial College)
• Sumati Surya (Raman Research Institute)
• Andrew Tolley (Imperial College)
• Neil Turok (University of Edinburgh)
• Pedro Vieira (Perimeter Institute)
• Yasaman Yazdi (Imperial College)

 

Territorial Land Acknowledgement

Perimeter Institute acknowledges that it is situated on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Neutral peoples.

Perimeter Institute is located on the Haldimand Tract. After the American Revolution, the tract was granted by the British to the Six Nations of the Grand River and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation as compensation for their role in the war and for the loss of their traditional lands in upstate New York. Of the 950,000 acres granted to the Haudenosaunee, less than 5 percent remains Six Nations land. Only 6,100 acres remain Mississaugas of the Credit land. 

We thank the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Neutral peoples for hosting us on their land.

This meeting will bring together researchers from the quantum technology, atomic physics, and fundamental physics communities to discuss how quantum simulation can be used to gain new insight into the physics of black holes and the early Universe. The core program of the workshop is intended to deepen collaboration between the UK-based Quantum Simulators for Fundamental Physics (QSimFP; https://www.qsimfp.org) consortium and researchers at Perimeter Institute and neighbouring institutions. The week-long conference will consist of broadly-accessible talks on work within the consortium and work within the broader community of researchers interested in quantum simulation, as well as a poster session and ample time for discussion and collaboration

pirsa.org/C23019

Territorial Land Acknowledgement

Perimeter Institute acknowledges that it is situated on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Neutral peoples.

Perimeter Institute is located on the Haldimand Tract. After the American Revolution, the tract was granted by the British to the Six Nations of the Grand River and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation as compensation for their role in the war and for the loss of their traditional lands in upstate New York. Of the 950,000 acres granted to the Haudenosaunee, less than 5 percent remains Six Nations land. Only 6,100 acres remain Mississaugas of the Credit land. 

We thank the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Neutral peoples for hosting us on their land.

We are entering an exponentially growing phase of gravitational-wave (GW) astronomy excitingly represented by the Nobel Prize in Physics last year - only two years after the first detection. The successful multi-messenger detection of binary neutron star merger in last August has triggered increasing interests to probe the neutron star post-merger gravitational radiations as they will give more decisive and informative description of the post-merger object itself and the GW/electromagnetic emission mechanism. As the post-merger GWs mainly lie in the 1kHz-4kHz band it becomes necessary and important to think about possible third-generation GW detectors that are primarily sensitive to the high frequency band.  In this workshop we shall focus on possible science case and detector configuration for kHz high-frequency detectors. We will have several invited talks while leaving more time for free discussions. We hope this workshop can serve as a seed for much broader discussions in the GW astronomy community and help promote high frequency detectors as one of the development directions of third-generation GW detectors.

Black hole superradiance is a fascinating process in general relativity and a unique window on ultralight particles beyond the standard model. Bosons -- such as axions and dark photons -- with Compton wavelengths comparable to size of astrophysical black holes grow exponentially to form large clouds spinning down the black hole in the process and produce monochromatic continuous gravitational wave radiation. In the era of gravitational wave astronomy and increasingly sensitive observations of astrophysical black holes and their properties superradiance of new light particles is a promising avenue to search for new physics in regimes inaccessible to terrestrial experiments. This workshop will bring together theorists data analysts and observers in particle physics gravitational wave astronomy strong gravity and high energy astrophysics to explore the signatures of black hole superradiance and to study the current and future possibilities of searching for new particles with black holes.