5–9 Jul 2026
University of Canterbury
Pacific/Auckland timezone

Rethinking Gravity: From Torsion and Nonmetricity to Black Holes and Cosmology

8 Jul 2026, 11:15
40m
Room E8 (Rātā / Engineering Core Building, University of Canterbury)

Room E8

Rātā / Engineering Core Building, University of Canterbury

Plenary Talk Plenary talks

Speaker

Sebastian Bahamonde (Institute for Basic Science, Daejon)

Description

Einstein’s theory describes gravity through spacetime curvature, but more general gauge-theoretic frameworks allow spacetime to carry torsion and nonmetricity as well. I will first introduce metric-affine gravity as a framework in which curvature, torsion, and nonmetricity have distinct geometric roles, and discuss the theoretical consequences of these structures, including their relation to hypermomentum and intrinsic properties of matter such as spin, dilation, and shear. I will then turn to black holes and gravitational waves in theories with torsion and/or nonmetricity, including scalarised black holes and gravitational spin-orbit effects. Finally, I will discuss cosmological models with non-Riemannian geometry, focusing on FLRW backgrounds and the propagation of an additional massive spin-2 mode associated with torsion.

Research Area Classical and Quantum Theories of Gravity

Author

Sebastian Bahamonde (Institute for Basic Science, Daejon)

Presentation materials