May 25-29, 2026; Forte Village Resort (Sardinia, Italy)
We are pleased to organize the workshop “The Microscopic Structure of Black Holes: From Theory to Observation and Back,” which will take place on 24–29 May 2026 at the Forte Village Resort, a stunning seaside venue in Sardinia (Italy), located 40 km from Cagliari.
This will be a small, focused, invitation-only workshop bringing together experts from different communities to explore the theoretical and phenomenological aspects of new physics at the scale of the black-hole horizon, as suggested by both quantum-information-theory arguments and explicit constructions in string theory. The aim is to address long-standing puzzles associated with classical black holes and discuss observational tests of this proposal.
We will host 20 leading scientists to foster cross-disciplinary interactions around the following thematic areas:
- Theory: explicit solutions, microstates of astrophysical black holes, numerical solutions with complex topology
- Simulations: formation, dynamics, and stability of black-hole microstates
- Phenomenology & Observations: gravitational-wave and electromagnetic observables, searches and constraints
List of participants:
Ibou Bah
Leor Barack
Iosif Bena
Emanuele Berti
Massimo Bianchi
Alessandra Buonanno
Vitor Cardoso
Katy Clough
Thibault Damour *
Chris Van Der Broeck
Oscar Campos Dias
Roberto Emparan
Pierre Heidmann
Tanja Hinderer
Paolo Pani
Jorge Santos
Helvi Witek
Nicolas Yunes
- To be confirmed
Scientific Secretariat: Alessandra Curto
Organizing Committee: Iosif Bena, Paolo Pani, Jorge Santos, Helvi Witek
Support: This event is supported by the FIS2 Advanced Grant ET-NOW – “Fundamental Physics, Nuclear Physics and Cosmology with the Einstein Telescope,” funded by the Italian Ministry of Research.
