About

General Relativity predicts the emission of gravitational waves during the inspiral and coalescence of systems of black holes and neutron stars. In order to interpret and facilitate the detection of gravitational waves from these, detailed theoretical understanding of general relativity and spacetimes around black holes and neutron stars is required. Members of the Gravity group study the gravitational collapse and formation of black holes, the dynamics of matter around black holes, and the gravitational radiation-reaction-driven merger of systems of neutron stars and stellar mass, intermediate mass, and supermassive black holes.

Neutron stars are invaluable laboratories for probing the state of matter under extreme conditions, and observations of neutron stars provide complementary information to that obtained from particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider. Members of the Gravity group model the complex physics of neutron stars (including supranuclear physics with magnetohydrodynamics and exotic phases of matter like superfluids, superconductors, and deconfined quarks) and the observational signatures of these physics (for example as seen from radio and X-ray pulsars as well as gravitational waves from neutron star mergers).

Find out more about our regular Gravity seminars.

String-theoretic techniques (in the foreground) can be employed to understand the strong nuclear force and related data from neutron stars and collider experiments (in the background).

Shining a light on neutron stars with string theory

Southampton research is pushing forward the frontiers of our understanding of the fundamental laws of nature by revealing insights into the interiors of neutron stars.

Read more

People, projects, publications and PhDs

People

Nils Andersson
Professor of Applied Maths
View profile
We are opening our eyes to what's out there - the invisible, dark side of the Universe, that we can only reveal through gravitational waves.

Related research institutes, centres and groups