Motion Through Matter in Curved Space

PhD defence by Conor Liam Dyson

Assessment Committee

Professor Poul Henrik Damgaard, Niels Bohr International Acadamy, University of Copenhagen (Chairperson)
Professor of Mathematical Physics Leor Barack, University of Southampton
Professor of Gravitational Physics Thomas Sotiriou, University of Nottingham

Supervisors

Associate Professor Maarten Van De Meent
Professor Vitor Cardoso

Department

Niels Bohr Institute

Place

Building: Niels Bohr Institute, Room: Auditorium A, Blegdamsvej 17, 2100, Copenhagen

Email address to gain access to the thesis: conorldyson@gmail.com.
You will either receive a copy of the thesis or be informed where you can read a physical copy.
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Short description of the thesis

Understanding the motion of gravitating objects has a long history, from Kepler and Newton, to modern day self-force techniques used in modelling the dynamics of small bodies in the vicinity of supermassive black holes. Understanding these systems already requires advanced methods from applied mathematics. The presence of additional matter fields further complicates this picture, as dark matter and fluid structures can form in environments around supermassive black holes, further affecting the motion of small compact objects such as neutron stars or stellar-mass black holes. In this thesis defence, I will present the progress I have made towards consistently describing the dynamics and motion of such objects around spinning black holes in the presence of matter.