Relativity Seminar
of the Institute of Theoretical Physics

spring 2014


Given seminars:

February 25, 2014
(Re)constructing spherically symmetric metrics in general relativity
Sante Carloni
ÚTF
(seminar in Czech language)

March 4, 2014
On the existence and properties of helically symmetric systems
Martin Scholtz
ÚTF
(seminar in Czech language)

March 11, 2014
Algebraic structure of Kundt geometries in any dimension
Robert Švarc
ÚTF
(seminar in Czech language)
March 18, 2014
Spectral states of active galactic nuclei from simultaneous X-ray and UV measurements by XMM-Newton
Dr. Jiří Svoboda
Prague Relativistic Astrophysics Group, Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences
(seminar in Czech language)

March 25, 2014
On non-linear electrodynamics: Einstein, Hoffmann, Born, Infeld, ...
Dr. Tayebeh Tahamtan
Department of Physics, Eastern Mediterranean University, North Cyprus
April 1, 2014
Geometric methods of constructing generic off-diagonal exact solutions in gravity
Prof. Sergiu Vacaru
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iasi, Romania
April 8, 2014
The complex morphology of active galactic nuclei: where do we stand ?
Dr. Frédéric Marin
Prague Relativistic Astrophysics Group, Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences

April 29, 2014
PP-waves as non-Abelian duals of flat metric
prof. Ladislav Hlavatý
Department of Physics, FJFI ČVUT
May 6, 2014
Kinematical Hilbert space for Einstein-Cartan theory: Continuous tensor product and integral representation of fundamental variables
dr. Marián Pilc
UniCredit Bank
May 13, 2014
Scalar perturbations in f(R)-cosmology
Mgr. Jan Novák
Mathematical Institute, ASCR
May 20, 2014
Effects of primordial curvature perturbations on the value of the cosmological constant
Prof. Antonio Enea Romano
Group of Phenomenology of Fundamental Interactions, University of Antioquia, Medellín / Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University
May 27, 2014
Extended teleparallel gravities: general properties
Dr. Diego Saez Gomez
Department of Theoretical Physics and History of Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Basque Country, Bilbao

Teleparallel gravity is a gauge theory for the translation group defined in the tangent bundle of a Riemannian spacetime, where the so-called tetrad plays the role of the dynamical field of the theory and is parallely transported (absolute parallelism condition) by assuming the Weitzenböck connection instead of the Levi-Civita connection, leading to a non-null torsion but a null scalar curvature. Whereas teleparallel gravity is equivalent to general relativity, its extensions, also known as f(T) gravities in analogy to f(R) gravity, give rise to new features and interesting properties but are not equivalent to f(R) gravity. In this talk, I will review some of the last analysis about f(T) gravity, including the violation of the local Lorentz invariance, the construction of conformal invariant actions or the non-existence of extra gravitational wave modes, among other issues.

June 27, 2014
!!! MIMOŘÁDNĚ V PÁTEK V 10:00 !!!
Induced fermionic current in toroidally compactified spacetimes with applications to cylindrical and toroidal nanotubes
Prof. Stefano Bellucci
Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, INFN Roma
August 12, 2014
Testing modified gravity in the solar system
dr. Ali Mozaffari
Department of Physics, Imperial College London
August 19, 2014
Hawking radiation as perceived by different observers
dr. Luis Barbado
Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (CSIC), Granada

In this talk, I will introduce a method for studying the perception of Hawking radiation by different observers outside a black hole, and for different vacuum states of the radiation field. The analysis is performed in terms of an effective-temperature function that varies along the trajectory of each observer. With this tool, I will show that not all observers crossing the horizon of a black hole in free-fall will fail to detect radiation, and that indeed it is not necessary to strictly form an horizon for obtaining Hawking radiation. Also, the radiation temperature perceived by a generic observer following an arbitrary radial trajectory outside the black hole (when it is possible to talk about a temperature) can be calculated directly from the local characteristics of its trajectory, in a way which has a clear physical interpretation. Finally, our results also point to a self-consistent buoyancy scenario near black holes, due to Hawking radiation.

August 25, 2014
!!! on MONDAY at 10:00 !!!
The (un)bearable lightness of matter-gravity couplings
dr. Vincenzo Vitagliano
CENTRA, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisboa

I will give a pedagogical review of Metric-Affine theories of Gravity (MAG), theories for which the metric and the affine connection are independent quantities (namely in the Palatini approach) and whose actions include covariant derivatives of the matter fields, with the covariant derivative naturally defined using the independent connection. MAG straightforwardly admit the presence of direct couplings involving matter and connection. I will summarize some physical consequences of such theories.

August 26, 2014
Gravitational waves and self-force computation for a compact object around a super-massive black hole
dr. Patxi Ritter
Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace, CNRS, Orléans

The description of extreme-mass-ratio binary systems is a challenging problem in gravitational wave physics with significant relevance for the future space interferometer eLISA/NGO. The main difficulty lies in the evaluation of the effects of the small body's gravitational field on itself. To that end, an accurate computation of the perturbations produced by the small body with respect to the background geometry of the large object (a massive black-hole) is required. After a presentation of the theoretical perturbative framework for EMRIs, I will present a numerical procedure to generate EMRI wave-forms and compute the self-force in the Regge-Wheeler gauge.

September 9, 2014
Black hole chemistry
dr. David Kubizňák
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, Ontario
(seminar in Czech language)

The mass of a black hole has traditionally been identified with its energy. We describe a new perspective on black hole thermodynamics, one that identifies the mass of a black hole with chemical enthalpy, and the cosmological constant as thermodynamic pressure. This leads to an understanding of black holes from the viewpoint of chemistry, in terms of concepts such as Van der Waals fluids, reentrant phase transitions, triple points, and isolated critical point. Both charged and rotating black holes exhibit novel chemical-type phase behaviour, hitherto unseen.


Other semesters:


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