Relativity Seminar
of the Institute of Theoretical Physics


Seminar is held on Tuesdays at 13:10 pm in the lecture room of the Institute
on the 10th floor of the department building at Trója, V Holešovičkách 2, Prague 8


May 12, 2026
Separability of parallel transport implies separability of spinning test particle motion
Dr. Vojtěch Witzany
ITP, Charles University

The motion of spinning test particles in curved space-time is a classical relativistic problem. Astrophysically, the model captures the leading spin-orbital coupling influencing the motion of rotating compact objects. Consequently, solving the equations of motion of spinning particles in black hole space-times to linear order in spin provides information used in the modelling of extreme mass ratio inspirals. To leading order, the spin of the particle is parallel transported, and this feeds into the equations of motion of the particle. Thus, it was already known that separable parallel transport made the problem much more tractable, even though we struggled to incorporate this usefully in the Hamiltonian formalism. Here we end those struggles and end up proving the following theorem: if parallel transport in a space-time is separable, then so is the motion of spinning test particles to linear order in spin.

May 26, 2026
Gauged linear sigma models and Ricci flat metrics
Prof. Rikard von Unge
Masaryk University

I will describe a new construction of Ricci flat metrics using gauged linear sigma models satisfying the Calabi-Yau condition. The approach will be introductory using elementary examples to illustrate the main points and to underline the connection between physical and mathematical concepts.

June 23, 2026
TBA
Kiana Salehi
Perimeter Institute/University of Waterloo

TBA

July 7, 2026
Dr. Alejandro Torres Orjuela
BIMSA, Beijing

TBA


David Kubizňák                                                                                                  Oldřich Semerák