Capra Meeting on Radiation Reaction in General Relativity
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The 28th Capra Meeting will be hosted at the University of Southampton from the 21st-25th of July, 2025.
The Capra meeting is an annual conference on the topic of radiation reaction in general relativity. The primary focus of these conferences is the development of the gravitational self-force approach to model extreme mass ratio inspirals and further our understanding of the two-body problem in general relativity. This is done in synergy with other well known modeling techniques such as post-Newtonian theory and numerical relativity. The canonical example of an extreme-mass-ratio inspiral (EMRI) is the inspiral of a stellar-mass compact object into a supermassive black hole. Gravitational waves from these systems are a promising target for the future space-based detector LISA, which is currently scheduled to launch in the mid-2030's by the European Space Agency with support from NASA. The study of radiation reaction and self-force is not limited to EMRIs, and a range of topics and applications to other areas of gravitational physics have been discussed at past Capra meetings; an example is the scattering of massive particles, which is currently an active area of research. The format of the meeting is an amalgamation of a daily invited review talk, short contributed talks and organized discussion sessions. The tradition of the Capra meetings is that there is no registration fee for participating.
At the Capra meetings we provide equal opportunities regardless of gender, age, race, disability, ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, civil status, or family status. We encourage all those with an interest in research on self-force and extreme mass-ratio inspirals to register for this meeting and apply to contribute a talk by submitting an abstract. Past and current attendees should encourage a broad spectrum of their colleagues to apply.
In 2020, at Capra 23 we as a community founded our own EDI (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) team to ensure we provide a safe environment and equitable opportunities for all. We aim to increase awareness of the obstacles underrepresented groups experience in academia. Please take a look at our EDI section where we report on progress to date and include a range of EDI resources. We also welcome new members to join our team (PhD/postdocs/academics). One of our first efforts was to create this website to ensure the longevity of our progress, and to make it easier for future organizers . We hope you will find it useful! You can also find a wide range of academic resources including an archive of past conferences on this website, and we plan to host additional resources in the future.
If you are an undergraduate student and you are interested in doing a PhD in modelling gravitational waves, please see our resources section for a wide range of introductory resources to the field.
We would like to thank Benjamin Leather for creating the Capra logo and Namecheap for generously funding and hosting the Capra team's private email system.