The Group of Gravitation & Cosmology

Sir Isaac Newton described gravity as an instantaneous and invisible force between two objects. But Newton's laws are inaccurate when describing the gravity produced by very massive objects, such as  black holes or neutron stars. Einstein devised a completely new description of gravity. First, he realized that objects in the universe exist in three dimensions of space and one of time. He then combined these into a four-dimensional spacetime.

As Einstein taught us, there is more to gravity than the inverse square law! We, in the Group of Gravitation and Cosmology,  explore the dynamical aspects of the gravitational field as described through General Relativity and its generalizations. We investigate Einstein’s theory of general relativity and its possible extensions in both classical and quantum regime. We are especially interested in black holes, gravitational lensing, gravitational entropy and cosmology. Furthermore, the group is involved in the areas of relativity with higher order gravity theories particularly in f(R), f(R,T), f(G), Brans-Dicke as well as in Gauss-Bonnet gravity theories.The subject area retains its vibrancy here, with theorists continuing to make leading contributions internationally.

At present the area of relativity is arguably one of the most exciting and rapidly advancing fields in the physical sciences; over the past two decades, a watershed confrontation has been developing between mathematical models of the early universe and new observational data. Major developments are becoming common place.

The purpose of this Group is to advance the scientific understanding of our universe in Pakistan, developing cosmological theories that are both mathematically consistent and observationally testable. The Group of Gravitation and Cosmology is a part of Department of Mathematics which in turn is part of Faculty of Sciences at University of the Punjab. It was suggested by Prof. Muhammad Sharif during an International Conference on Relativistic Astrophysics which was organized by Department of Mathematics to announce the relativity group within the department officially. In recent years, the group’s main effort has been towards the discussion of thermodynamics, inflation, gravitational lensing with the viable universe models. Furthermore, the effects of electromagnetic field on self-gravitating star configuration have also been investigated.