News and Events

News and Events in 2022

Artistic representation of a possible future underground observatory with long, illuminated tunnels and complex measurement technology. Laser beams forming a large triangle can be seen above the earth's surface. Two merging black holes appear in the sky, emitting gravitational waves that spread out in circles.
New collaboration to strengthen candidacy for the observatory in the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion more
Award ceremony: Alessandra Buonanno receives the 2022 Tomalla Prize
On the occasion of the awarding of the Tomalla Prize, Alessandra Buonanno will give a colloquium about her work. The ceremony is open to the public.

Dezember 16, 2022, 5:30 pm
Auditoire A de l'Ecole de Physique
24, Quai Ernest Ansermet, Geneva more
Black holes on their way out: Postdoc award of the State of Brandenburg for Vijay Varma
Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics is honored for his innovative research on merging black holes more
Tim Dietrich receives ERC Starting Grant for exploring binary neutron stars
Tim Dietrich, Professor at the University of Potsdam and Max Planck Fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Gravitational Physics, receives a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant worth 1.5 million euros. more
Portrait of Alessandra Buonanno in front of a gray background.
The prize is awarded about every three years for extraordinary contributions to general relativity and gravity more
Hypermodels help understand gravitational waves
A new approach to analyze binary neutron star mergers provides a proving ground for model development and a means to identify systematics in future gravitational-wave observations. more
A scientific simulation of an accretion disk around a black hole. The structure shows a vortex-like, turbulent movement with blue and red currents, which indicate different temperature or density ranges.
International research team succeeds for the first time in analyzing very different signals simultaneously more
Talk at Leopoldina: Gravitational Waves as Probes of Astrophysics, Gravity and Fundamental Physics
Alessandra Buonanno talks about the observation of gravitational waves, the models needed to predict them, and the significance of the knowledge gained.

June 8, 2022, 6:30 pm
Leopoldina, Halle (Saale) more
Observation of a runaway black hole
The final black hole left behind after a binary black hole merger can attain recoil velocities up to 5000 km/s, large enough to be ejected from any galaxy. The authors find the first evidence for a large recoil velocity from a gravitational-wave signal, with a velocity of ~1500 km/s (90% uncertainty of ~900 km/s). more
Spin-orbit resonances: first hints from LIGO-Virgo
Spin measurements from binary black hole mergers observed by gravitational-wave detectors carry valuable clues about how these binaries form in nature. Theorists have predicted that binaries could be attracted towards special configurations called spin-orbit resonances, where the spin and orbital angular momenta become locked into a resonant plane. The authors find first potential signs of these resonances in gravitational-wave data. more
Go to Editor View