GRAVITEX 2020 — International Conference on Gravitation: Theory and Experiment

Slightly over 100 years has passed since Einstein formulated the field equations of General Relativity, revealing a purely classical nonlinear theory of great mathematical richness and profound physical consequences. Nevertheless despite much effort and progress, understanding gravity remains elusive. On the theoretical front, a satisfactory quantum theory of gravity is still lacking, and although great progress has been made in testing the Einstein theory experimentally, we are not sure that its extrapolation to very small and very large scales is the last word. Attempts to incorporate and constrain “modified gravity” in cosmology, with a view toward explaining dark energy and dark matter, has been a very active area of theoretical inquiry. Moreover, by exploiting gravitational lensing, we are able to probe the distribution of mass in the universe directly. On the experimental front, decades of effort to develop gravitational wave detectors capable of detecting the gravitational waves from the coalescence of black holes and neutron star mergers have come to fruition with a first detection, and the years ahead promise to bring us rich data sets, allowing for precise tests of theoretical predictions of gravity in the strong-field regime. This event will include two components held in parallel: a conference, more aimed at specialists from Africa and around the world; and a school designed to present young African researchers with an overview of these exciting developments.

Topics: Gravitation, Cosmology, Theory, Experiment