26th Australian Institute of Physics Congress and the Australian and New Zealand Conference on Optics and Photonics

Session

AIP: General Relativity and Gravitation 2

ASGRG

8 Dec 2026, 16:30

Belinda Hutchinson Building (The University of Sydney )

Conveners

AIP: General Relativity and Gravitation 2

• Susan Scott (The Australian National University)

385. GW250114 reveals signatures of post-merger black-hole horizon

Ling Sun

08/12/2026, 16:30

AIP | General Relativity and Gravitation (ASGRG)

Invited talk

Black-hole horizons, the "surfaces of no return", lie at the intersection of general relativity and quantum theory, but they are extremely difficult to probe observationally. In this talk, I will present our analysis of GW250114, the loudest binary black-hole signal observed so far, and report observational evidence for a "direct wave" component associated with the newly formed black-hole...

465. Physical Black Holes: Properties and Observational Tests

Daniel Terno

08/12/2026, 17:00

AIP | General Relativity and Gravitation (ASGRG)

Contributed Oral

A physical black hole is a light-trapping region whose apparent horizon forms in finite time for a distant observer, irrespective of whether an event horizon exists. Recent work shows that, if such objects form, their near-horizon geometry is not merely a dynamical version of the Schwarzschild or Kerr picture: it has unusual structural properties and features that differ substantially from...

454. Classical-quantum gravity as quantum gravity in disguise

Sebastian Murk (Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University)

08/12/2026, 17:15

AIP | General Relativity and Gravitation (ASGRG)

Contributed Oral

Whether gravity must be quantized remains one of the biggest open problems in fundamental physics. Classical-quantum hybrid theories have recently attracted attention as a possible framework in which gravity is treated classically yet interacts consistently with quantum matter. Schemes based on completely positive dynamics satisfy most formal consistency requirements and enable a systematic...

91. Conserved quantities and integrability for massless spinning particles in general relativity

Finnian Gray (Macquarie University)

08/12/2026, 17:30

AIP | General Relativity and Gravitation (ASGRG)

Contributed Oral

In general relativity, the dynamics of spinning particles is governed by the Mathisson–Papapetrou–Dixon equations, which are most commonly applied to massive bodies, but the framework also works in the massless case. Such massless versions naturally arise, for example, in the description of energy centroids of high-frequency wave packets. In this work, we consider massless spinning particles...

111. Interactions between photons and gravitational field beyond the general theory of relativity

Enbang Li (School of Physics, EIS, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia)

08/12/2026, 17:45

AIP | General Relativity and Gravitation (ASGRG)

Contributed Oral

According to Einstein’s general theory of relativity, photons—though massless—are influenced by gravitational fields because gravity acts not as a force in the Newtonian sense but as a manifestation of spacetime curvature. In this framework, a photon follows a null geodesic, meaning its path bends when passing near massive objects due to the warping of spacetime. This leads to several key...