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General relativity describes gravitation in a geometrical framework generalizing special relativity and classical mechanics. This term includes theoretical studies of gravity, experimental studies of gravitational waves and observational studies of gravitational lensing, as well as tests of general relativity and laboratory experiments.
In 2023, pulsar timing arrays announced what could become the first ever discovery of a stochastic gravitational wave background: the random superposition of gravitational waves permeating the cosmos — a vestige of cosmic processes in the Universe.
This study analyses radio observations of the jet in galaxy M87, from which the existence of a spinning black hole that induces Lense–Thirring precession of a misaligned accretion disk is inferred.
Continuous gravitational waves represent an exciting new frontier for multi-messenger astrophysics. This overview discusses their origins and the results obtained in the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA O3 observing run, highlighting their potential for future studies.
Finding a way to combine quantum mechanics and gravity is a longstanding issue in physics. While there are different approaches to quantum gravity, there are many challenges in making concrete predictions for scenarios at the interface of these two theories. Here, the authors propose a first-principles strategy to determine the dynamics of objects in the presence of mass configurations in superposition, which enables predictions where the gravitational source is in a quantum superposition rather than a classical configuration.
In 2023, pulsar timing arrays announced what could become the first ever discovery of a stochastic gravitational wave background: the random superposition of gravitational waves permeating the cosmos — a vestige of cosmic processes in the Universe.
The SuperBIT telescope spent more than a month being carried through the stratosphere by a scientific balloon, imaging space from above 99.5% of the Earth’s atmosphere.
The NANOGrav collaboration has found light-years long gravitational waves from, most likely, the mergers of millions of supermassive black holes. To keep watching this cosmic dance, we need sustained funding for black hole research.
Charles Gammie and colleagues wrote the HARM code to tackle the extreme physics close to a spinning black hole. Twenty years later, it is performing a similar task in three dimensions in 1/10,000th of the time.