The Irresistible Attraction of Gravity: A Journey into Black Holes

Sala dei Notari - The Irresistible Attraction of Gravity — The Sala dei Notari during Prof. Luciano Rezzolla's lecture.

The magnificent Sala dei Notari, in Perugia, was the setting of an unforgettable evening co-organized by CoG’s doctoral student Davide Panella and Prof. Gianluca Grignani of the University of Perugia. The highlight of the event, which took place on November 20th, was the lecture “The irresistible attraction of gravity – A journey into black holes” by Prof. Luciano Rezzolla.

The following day, Prof. Rezzolla gave a PERAPS research seminar at the Department of Physics on recent advances in binary neutron-star modelling, where he discussed how gravitational-wave signals can tightly constrain the equation of state, sound speed, and possible phase transitions. Prof. Rezolla also presented a correlation between the ratio of the energy and angular-momentum losses in the late-time portion of the post-merger signal, i.e., the "long ringdown", and the properties of the EOS at the highest pressures and densities in neutron-star cores.

PERAPS research seminar by Prof. Luciano Rezzolla — Front row: Prof. Luciano Rezzolla, Prof. Marta Orselli, Prof. Gianluca Grignani. Back row: Giacomo Finocchi, Matteo Nanni, Leonardo Rossetti, Marta Cocco, Daniele Pica, Davide Panella, Elisa Grilli, Andrea Placidi, Francesco Marzocco, and Filippo Camilloni.

The audience included CoG members Prof. Marta Orselli, Marta Cocco, Elisa Grilli and Davide Panella, alongside other researchers and many students from the department, turning the visit into a two-day bridge between public engagement and active research discussion.

The program had institutional support from INFN and the Department of Physics and Geology of the University of Perugia, and was possible due to the CoG’s commitment to bringing cutting-edge gravitational physics to a broad audience.

Dec. 2, 2025, 3:59 p.m.