Astrophysics and Cosmology

This group gathers researchers working on astrophysics and cosmology topics. It covers theoretical, computational and observational skills, potentiating synergies between them to tackle a number of problems of current interest in the field. The main research areas are the physics of white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes, the equation of state of dense hadronic matter, radio astronomy, detection and characterisation of exoplanets, dynamics of stellar and planetary systems, celestial mechanics, computational astrophysics, interplay between particle and gravitational physics, the origin of dark matter, dark energy, inflation, and the baryon asymmetry.

Current projects

Previous projects

Recent Publications

Papers

International Journals

1 - Space-based surveillance of Resident Space Objects with the CHEOPS space telescope
L.F.P. Gonçalves, N. Billot, S. Hellmich, D. Barbosa, B. Coelho, A.C.M. Correia, A. Fortier, C. Broeg, A. Bekkelien, D. Ehrenreich, B. Merin, M. Günther, A. Heitzmann, W. Benz
Acta Astronaut. 239, 61-75 (2026)

2 - Strongly interacting matter in extreme magnetic fields
Prabal Adhikari, Martin Ammon, Sidney S. Avancini, Alejandro Ayala, ..., HelenaProvidência Pais, Luigi Scurto, ...
Prog.Part.Nucl.Phys. 146, 104199 (2026)

3 - Square Kilometre Array Science Data Challenge 3a: foreground removal for an EoR experiment
A Bonadi, P. Alberto et al.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society staf1466 (2025)

4 - The sharpness of the quark-hadron transition and the properties of hybrid stars
MB Albino, R. Fariello, G: Lugones, F.S. Navarra
Int. J. Mod. Phys. A 34(15) (2025)

5 - A Cloud-native Agile approach to cyber platform prototyping and integration for astronomy: the ENGAGE SKA case
D. Barbosa, D. Regateiro, J.P. Barraca, D. Bartashevich, M. Bartolini, M. di Carlo, P. Harding, D. Maia, B. Morgado, D. Nunes, B. Ribeiro, B. Coelho, V. Ribeiro, Allan K. de Almeida Jr, T. Vaillant, U. Yilmaz
J. Instrum. 20(7), T07004 (2025)

6 - Evaporating Kerr black holes as probes of new physics
M. Calza, J. Rosa
J. High Energy Phys. 11, 44 (2025)

7 - Neural posterior estimation of neutron star equations of state
Valéria Carvalho, Márcio Ferreira, Constança Providência
Phys. Rev. D 112, 083044 (2025)

8 - Rapidly spinning dark matter-admixed neutron stars
L. Cipriani, E. Giangrandi, V. Sagun, D.D. Doneva, S.S. Yazadjiev
Phys. Rev. D 111(12), 123005 (2025)

9 - Calibrating the medium effects of light clusters in heavy-ion collisions
T. Custódio, A. Rebillard-Soulié, R. Bougault, D. Gruyer, F. Gulminelli, T. Malik, H. Pais, C. Providência
Phys. Rev. Lett. 134 (8), 082304 (2025)

10 - Stupendously large primordial black holes from the QCD axion
M. Faria, RZ Ferreira, F. Rompineve,
J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 10, 055 (2025)

11 - The inflation trilogy and primordial black holes
P. Ferraz, J. Rosa,
J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 3, 40 (2025)

12 - Conditional variational autoencoder inference of neutron star equation of state from astrophysical observations
M. Ferreira, M. Bejger
Phys. Rev. D 111 (2), 023035 (2025)

13 - Learning about neutron star composition from the slope of the mass-radius diagram
M. Ferreira, C. Providência
Phys. Rev. D 112(8), 083058 (2025)

14 - Fastest spinning millisecond pulsars: Indicators for quark matter in neutron stars?
C. Gärtlein, V. Sagun, O. Ivanytskyi, D. Blaschke, I. Lopes
Phys. Rev. D 111(12), 123021 (2025)

15 - Constraints on maximum neutron star mass from protoneutron star evolution
D. Kumar, T. Malik, H. Mishra, C. Providência
Phys. Rev. D 112(6), 063042 (2025)

16 - The footprint of nuclear saturation properties on the neutron star f mode oscillation frequencies: a machine learning approach
D. Kumar, T. Malik, Mishra. H.
J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 3, 033 (2025)

17 - Dense matter in neutron stars with eXTP
A Li, AL Watts, GB Zhang, ..., C Providência, et al.
Sci. China-Phys. Mech. Astron. 68(11), 119503 (2025)

18 - Exploring the interaction of high-performance triazine-based porous organic polymers with antibiotics and carbon dioxide
P.M.C Matias, S.C.C. Nunes, J.M. Gil, M.J. Ferreira, A.A.C.C. Pais, D. Murtinho, A.J.M. Valente
Chem. Eng. J. 526, 171078 (2025)

19 - Impact of Magnetic-field-driven Anisotropies on the Equation of State Probed in Neutron Star Mergers
E.R. Most, J. Peterson, L. Scurto, H. Pais, V. Dexheimer
Astrophys. J. Lett. 989(2), L29 (2025)

20 - Superradiant Darwinism: survival of the lightest axion
D. Neves, J.G. Rosa
J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 4, 019 (2025)

21 - RheoVolution: An N-body simulator for tidally evolving bodies with complex rheological models
VM Oliveira, C. Ragazzo, ACM Correia
Astron. Astrophys. 693, A5 (2025)

22 - Light clusters as a possible source of crustal impurities: A quasi-particle approach
H. Pais, H.D. Thi, A.F. Fantina, F. Gulminelli, C. Providencia
Astron. Astrophys. 699, A129 (2025)

23 - Inferring the equation of state from neutron star observables via machine learning
N.K. Patra, T. Malik, H. Pais, K. Zhou, B.K. Agrawal, C. Providencia
Phys. Lett. B 865, 139470 (2025)

24 - Collective modes in relativistic cold asymmetric nuclear matter within the covariant Vlasov approach
A. Rabhi, O. Boukari, S. S. Avancini, C. Providência
Phys. Rev. C 111 (1), 015804 (2025)

25 - Comparing strange and nonstrange quark stars within resummed QCD at NLO
TE Restrepo, JL Kneur, C Providência, MB Pinto
Phys. Rev. D 112(5), 054013 (2025)

26 - Role of the δ meson in the equation of state and direct Urca cooling of neutron stars
L. Scurto, H. Pais, M. Antonelli, F. Gulminelli
Astron. Astrophys. 703, A200 (2025)

27 - Feasibility study of a dark matter admixed neutron star based on recent observational constraints
P. Thakur, T. Malik, A. Das, T.K. Jha, B.K. Sharma, C. Providência
Astron. Astrophys. 697, A220 (2025)

28 - Symmetry generators and quantum numbers for fermionic circularly symmetric systems
V.B. Mendrot, A.S. de Castro, P. Alberto
Ann. Phys. 482, 170178 (2025)

29 - Low-thrust transfer with Theory of Functional Connections: Application to 243 Ida with a solar sail
A.K. de Almeida, T. Vaillant, L.B.T. Santos, D. Maia
Adv. Space Res. 75(2), 2108-2125 (2025)

30 - Multistability and complexity in the planar spin-orbit problem
MV de Oliveira,
Comm. Nonlinear Sci. 150, 109024 (2025)

31 - Impact of the scalar isovector δ meson on the description of nuclear matter and neutron star properties
L.G.T. dos Santos, T. Malik, C. Providência
Phys. Rev. C 111 (3), 035805 (2025)

Portuguese Journals

32 - A grande revolta dos gatos de Schrödinger após 100 anos de quântica
Constança Providência, Helena Alberto
Gazeta de Física 48, nº 1, 2-2 (2025)

33 - Estrelas de neutrões como laboratórios de física
Constança Providência, Milena Albino, João Cartaxo, Valéria Carvalho, Tiago Custódio, Luigi Scurto, Márcio Ferreira, Tuhin Malik, Helena Pais
Gazeta de Física 48, nº 2, 38-41 (2025)

34 - Será um osso de mamute?
Constança Providência, Rita Wolters
Gazeta de Física 48, nº 1, 37-38 (2025)

Proceedings

International Conferences

35 - Observational constraints on neutron star matter equation of state
Tuhin Malik, João Cartaxo, Constança Providência
J.Subatomic Part.Cosmol. 4, 100086 (2025)

Communications

Invited

36 - Temperature Evolution in the Early Universe and Freeze-in at stronger coupling
Cosme, C.
Gr@V seminars. 5 Feb. University of Aveiro, Portugal. (2025)

37 - Spanning neutron star properties with microscopic descriptions: can we learn about composition?
Providência, Constança
2nd Workshop on modern equations of state and spectroscopy in neutron-star matter, Universidad de Alcalá May 26-28 (2025)

38 - Spanning neutron star properties within a microscopic description: learning about composition
Providência, Constança
Making Neutron Stars a Laboratory of New Physics: one-week TH-Institute, CERN June 9-13 (2025)

39 - Learning about the neutron star composition from observations
Providência, Constança
Café com Física Oct 22 (2025)

Oral

40 - Temperature evolution in the Early Universe and Freeze-in at stronger coupling
Cosme, C.
FLASY 2025 Conference,.Dipartimento di Architettura Roma Tre. 30 June - 4 July 4. Roma, Italy. (2025)

41 - Hot molecules, cold valve: enhancing molecule vaporization for astrochemistry searches
R.J.C. Roque, F. Ferreira, R.B.L. Vieira, N.M. Campos and S.R. Domingos
29th Colloquium on High-Resolution Molecular Spectroscopy (HRMS 2025) (2025)

Software

42 - CompactObject: Bayesian EOS inference for neutron stars
Chun Huang, Tuhin Malik, João Cartaxo, Shashwat Sourav, Wenli Yuan, Tianzhe Zhou, Xuezhi Liu, John Groger, Nicole Osborn Xieyuan Dong, Nathan Whitsett, Zhiheng Wang, Constança Providência, Micaela Oertel, Alexander Y Chen, Laura Tolos, Anna Watts
Astrophysics Source Code Library ascl: 2511.030 (2025)

Thesis

PhD thesis

43 - Neutron Stars: General Modelling within a Relativistic Mean-Field Framework
Luigi Scurto
PhD in Physics, 16 Set (2025)

44 - Particle production in inflationary cosmology
Paulo Bernardo Figueira da Silva Ferraz
PhD in Physics, 29 Set (2025)

Other

45 - QuantumLand
Helena Alberto, Sagar Pratapsi, Constança Providência
Rómulo: Exposições (2025)

46 - A Bayesian Inference of Hybrid Stars with Large Quark Cores
Milena Albino, Tuhin Malik, Márcio Ferreira, Constança Providência
arxiv 2511.02653 [nucl-th] (2025)

47 - Numerical Relativity Simulations of Dark Matter Admixed Binary Neutron Stars
Edoardo Giangrandi, Hannes R. Rüter, Nina Kunert, Mattia Emma, Adrian Abac, ..., Tim Dietrich, Violetta Sagun, Wolfgang Tichy, Constança Providência
arxiv 2504.20825 [astro-ph.HE] (2025)

48 - Investigating the Impact of Higher-Order Phase Transitions in Binary Neutron-Star Mergers
P. Hammond, A. Clevinger, Milena Albino, Constança Providência, et al
arxiv 2508.10698 [astro-ph.HE] (2025)

49 - Curiosidade: Motor da Ciência
Providência, Constança
Rómulo: Exposição (2025)

50 - Collaborative Research Centre/Transregio 211 "Strong-Interaction Matter under Extreme Conditions"
Providência, Constança
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) June 16-17 (2025)

51 - Novos Talentos
Providência, Constança
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (2025)