Gravity theory and gravitational wave phenomenology

A paper entitled "Testing the nature of dark compact objects: a status report" by Vitor Cardoso (IST, Lisbon & CERN) and Paolo Pani (Sapienza University of Rome) has been recently published in Living Reviews in Relativity.

Very compact objects probe extreme gravitational fields and may be the key to understand outstanding puzzles in fundamental physics. These include the nature of dark matter, the fate of spacetime singularities, or the loss of unitarity in Hawking evaporation. The standard astrophysical description of collapsing objects tells us that massive, dark and compact objects are black holes. Any observation suggesting otherwise would be an indication of beyond-the-standard-model physics. On the other hand, null results strengthen and quantify the black hole paradigm. The advent of gravitational-wave astronomy and precise measurements with very long baseline interferometry allow one to finally probe into such foundational issues.  In this work, the authors overview the physics of exotic dark compact objects and their observational status, including the observational evidence for black holes with current and future experiments.

The results of this analysis will be presented in a plenary talk at the GR22/Amaldi13 Conference held this week in Valencia.

Reference
"Testing the nature of dark compact objects: a status report"
Vitor Cardoso & Paolo Pani
Living Rev Relativ (2019) 22:4