Research conducted by the Southampton Gravity group focuses on gravitational waves, general relativistic spacetimes around black holes, and the properties of ultra-dense matter in neutron stars, such as superfluidity and superconductivity of nuclear and quark matter.
General Relativity predicts the emission of gravitational waves during the inspiral and coalescence of systems of black holes and neutron stars. In order to interpret and facilitate the detection of gravitational waves from these, detailed theoretical understanding of general relativity and spacetimes around black holes and neutron stars is required. Members of the Gravity group study the gravitational collapse and formation of black holes, the dynamics of matter around black holes, and the gravitational radiation-reaction-driven merger of systems of neutron stars and stellar mass, intermediate mass, and supermassive black holes.
Neutron stars are invaluable laboratories for probing the state of matter under extreme conditions, and observations of neutron stars provide complementary information to that obtained from particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider. Members of the Gravity group model the complex physics of neutron stars (including supranuclear physics with magnetohydrodynamics and exotic phases of matter like superfluids, superconductors, and deconfined quarks) and the observational signatures of these physics (for example as seen from radio and X-ray pulsars as well as gravitational waves from neutron star mergers).
Find out more about our regular Gravity seminars.
PhD applications are welcome every academic year in the fields of gravitational waves, black holes, and neutron stars.
We are opening our eyes to what's out there - the invisible, dark side of the Universe, that we can only reveal through gravitational waves.
