From Solvay to Self-Force: CoG at the 29th Capra Meeting in Brussels

CoG members at the site of the 1927 Solvay Conference: Marta Cocco, Conor Dyson, Rico Lo, Simon Maenaut, Lorena Magaña Zertuche, Marica Minucci, Rodrigo Panosso Macedo, Ariadna Ribes Metidieri, João Santos, Brian Seymour, Maarten van de Meent, Guangzi Xu — CoG members posing at the site of the 1927 Solvay Conference: Marta Cocco, Conor Dyson, Rico Lo, Simon Maenaut, Lorena Magaña Zertuche, Marica Minucci, Rodrigo Panosso Macedo, Ariadna Ribes Metidieri, João dos Santos, Brian Seymour, Maarten van de Meent and Guangzi Xu.

From June 29th to July 3rd, twelve members of the Center of Gravity travelled to Brussels for the 29th Capra Meeting on Radiation Reaction in General Relativity, hosted by the International Solvay Institutes at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Capra is the largest annual gathering of the self-force community: researchers who study how a small compact object slowly falls into a much larger black hole, and how its own gravity gives it a tiny push back, a bit like a small stone in a whirlpool, gently pushed off course by its own ripples. True to its tradition, Capra has increasingly reached well beyond this core topic into neighbouring areas of gravitational physics.

Many of the CoG members gave a talk. The group also took an active part in the panel discussions. Ariadna sat on the panel on "Challenges at second-order in self-force". Marta and Conor served as panelist and chair, respectively, for the session on "Environmental effects and beyond GR".

It was a valuable chance to discuss black-hole physics and gravitational-wave modelling with a community deeply involved in the theory behind the future LISA mission. The group also received useful feedback on ongoing CoG projects.

Beyond the talks, the group visited the Parlamentarium. They also posed for a photo on the spot where the historic 1927 Solvay Conference took place, a fitting nod to the origins of modern physics in the city that once again hosted some of its latest developments.

Many thanks to the organizers for a great meeting. We can't wait to find out where Capra 30 will be hosted!

Below is gallery of images of CoG members presenting their work at Capra 29.