Colloquium – Frans Pretorius

Frans Pretorius, Princeton University

Professor of Physics; Director, Princeton Gravity Initiative

Open Questions on the Dynamics of Black Holes

Today we have a solid theoretical understanding of the dynamics of black holes, as predicted by general relativity, for the typical binary merger expected as an astrophysical gravitational wave source. However, in more “extreme” situations, namely black holes that collide with ultrarelativistic velocities, and black holes that spin near the maximal limit allowed by general relativity, less is known, in some cases even qualitatively. In this talk I will discuss some of these open problems, and speculate about possible answers.

Apr 27, 2023 @ 4:00pm Central in Stevenson 4327; reception beforehand at 3:30pm in Stevenson 6333

Host: M. Disconzi; co-hosted by VandyGRAF

To join via Zoom, please contact Reina Beach (reina.beach@vanderbilt.edu) to request the Zoom link.

Bio: Frans Pretorius is a Professor of Physics at Princeton University. His PhD was at the University of British Columbia, supervised by Matthew Choptuik. Pretorius’ primary field of research is general relativity, specializing in numerical solution of the field equations. His work has included studies of gravitational  collapse, black hole mergers, cosmic singularities, higher dimensional gravity, models of black hole evaporation, and using gravitational wave observations to test the dynamical, strong-field regime of general relativity.