Home - Vitor Cardoso: Black Hole Physics

About

I am a DNRF Chair and Villum Investigator at the Niels Bohr Institute and a Distinguished Professor at Técnico. My group is doing exciting things: trying to understand the content of Einstein field equations from gravitational-wave data; dissecting the physics of black holes and their dynamics in generic spacetimes; trying to discriminate between different gravity theories using gravitational waves…and in general doing General Relativity and black hole physics.

Resume

Research Area

General Relativity, Black Holes, Gravitational Waves
Founding member of the Portuguese Society of Relativity and Gravitation (SPRG)

Current Professional Status

Professor of Physics at IST, Lisbon
Professor of Physics at The Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen

Editorial Positions & Committees

Living Reviews in Relativity (Editor)
New Talents in Physics, Gulbenkian Foundation (Scientific Committee)
ICTP-SAIFR gravity prize Scientific Committee member 2020–2024
Chair of Scientific Organizing Committee of GR22

Leadership & Advisory roles

Leader, Strong Group at NBI (2022–)
Leader, GRIT Group at IST (2009–)
Head, Physics Department IST (2020–2022)
IST Scientific Council member (2019–2020)
FCT Scientific Council (2023–2024)

International Collaborations

Chair of GWverse Gravitational Waves, Black Holes and Fundamental Physics (COST Action CA16104)
Board Member of LISA (currently the largest ESA-led mission)
Co-Chair WPSI Science Interpretation Package for LISA (2018–2022)
Co-Chair Fundamental Physics Working Group for ngEHT
Steering Committee member of the European Center for Astro Particle Theory (EuCAPT)

Referee

For Nature, Physical Review Letters, Physical Review D and all major international journals in the field of astrophysics and gravitation.

Scientific Adviser

Scientific Advisory Board for the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, 2024–2030.
For the European Research Council, the European Commission and for the main National Science Foundations in Europe and Asia and North America.

Selected Awards and Recognition

ULisboa Award, the highest honour confered by the University of Lisbon, for “extraordinary contributions to theoretical physics and to scientific progress on a global scale”, 2024.
FCT Scientific Council, 2024.
IST Distinguished Professor, 2023.
Member of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences, 2022.
ERC Advanced Grant, from the European Research Council, 2022–2027.
DNRF Chair, Niels Bohr Institute, 2023–2025.
Villum Investigator, Niels Bohr Institute, 2022–2027.
ERC Synergy Grant, Panel member, 2020–2025.
Visiting Senior Researcher at Waseda Institute of Advanced Study, 2020.
Van der Waals Professorial Chair University of Amsterdam, 2019.
Fellow CERN, 2019.
Honourable Citizen Argivai/Póvoa de Varzim.
Member of the Committee (elected) of the ISGRG, 2016–2025 term.
UL/CGD award for exceptional researchers, 2016.
Fellow CERN, 2016.
Outstanding Visiting Researcher, University of Rome “La Sapienza,” 2015–2016.
Ordem de Sant’Iago da Espada, presidential title for scientific achievements, awarded by the President of the Portuguese Republic, 2015.
Young Member of the Institute for Advanced Studies, Lisbon Academy of Sciences.
ERC Consolidator Grant, from the European Research Council, 2015–2021.
Outstanding Referee Award, American Physical Society, 2014.
Fellow, Perimeter Institute, 2014-2018.
Distinguished Visiting Professor, University of Belém do Pará, 2013–2014.
Visiting Professor, Perimeter Institute, 2013.
Outstanding teacher award, 2012.
UTL/ Santander Totta award for outstanding researcher, 2010.
ERC Starting Grant, for outstanding junior researchers in Europe in 2010. Awarded by the European Research Council.
Gulbenkian Scholar at The University of Mississippi, April–July 2010.
Fulbright Scholar at The University of Mississippi, Nov 2008 to Mar 2009.
Young Researcher UTL/ Caixa Geral de Depositos award, 2008.
Gulbenkian Prize for best scientific research project, in 2002 and 2005.

Publications

I have published over 200 scientific papers in international journals, and several commissioned reviews. A complete list of my publications can be found here.

This volume gives a unified picture of the multifaceted subject of superradiance, with a focus on recent developments in the field, ranging from fundamental physics to astrophysics. The book covers all our current understanding on the physics of the amplification of waves by a medium, including classical effects such as the Cherenkov effect. The main body of the book deals with superradiance in black hole physics, with important applications in astrophysics and particle physics.

This is not my book, but I wrote the preface (in portuguese) for these Stephen Hawking BBC lectures, and it’s a cool text to read. The book covers important aspects of black hole physics, such as formation, their uniqueness properties and, naturally, Hawking evaporation.

This book, written in portuguese, is a voyage beginning with the notion of time and light, and ending on a black hole. Black holes are the strangest and most fascinating entities of the cosmos, simultaneously a mathematical construct, and also that the universe produces! The book is also a reflection on what it means to do science and our role as human beings in the scientific building.

The standard astrophysical description of collapsing objects tells us that massive, dark and compact objects are black holes. Any observation suggesting otherwise is an indication of beyond-the-standard-model physics. The advent of gravitational-wave astronomy and very long baseline interferometry allow one to finally probe into such foundational issues. We overview the physics of exotic dark compact objects and their observational status, including the observational evidence for black holes.