Science Café: Bending light, from Eddington to black holes

22/06/2019 @ 21:30 - 22:30 -

In this presentation, prof. Carlos Herdeiro will discuss the effect of strong gravitational lensing and the current attempts to measure it and in particular, to measure the “shadow” of a black hole.

Science Café: Bending light, from Eddington to black holes

When

22/06/2019    
21:30 - 22:30

Event Type

Bending light, from Eddington to black holes

Carlos Herdeiro

(Centra and Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa)

On the 29th of May of 1919, Eddington’s expedition to the Isle of Prince (together with the akin expedition to Sobral in Brazil) confirmed a remarkable prediction of Einstein’s general theory of relativity: that massive bodies bend the trajectory of light. This is the phenomenon of “gravitational lensing”. The effect measured by Eddington is a weak lensing. But there are bodies, sufficiently massive and compact, that create such a strong gravitational lensing that the trajectory of light closes in itself. This is what happens around a black hole. In this presentation we will discuss these effects of strong gravitational lensing and the current attempts to measure it and in particular, to measure the “shadow” of a black hole.

Carlos Herdeiro is an Associate Professor in the Physics Department of the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon since 2018. He has a first degree in Physics/Applied Mathematics from the University of Porto and a master and doctoral degree from the University of Cambridge in the UK. He was a researcher in the Universities of Stanford, Porto and Aveiro. His area of research focuses on General Relativity, black hole physics and gravitational waves. He has over 130 articles in prestigious international journals and has also lead international networks funded by the European Union. He founded and coordinated the gravitation group at the University of Aveiro between 2010 and 2018. Outreach is one of his interests, having presented over 100 lectures to the general public. He is founding member and current president of the Relativity and Gravitation Portuguese Society.

 

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