Topical Collection “Black Holes, Gravitational Waves and Space-Time Singularities (Lemaitre Conference 2024)” – Complete collection of 19 articles now published
14 September 2026
The legacy of Georges Lemaitre – whose 1927 derivation of the recession of the nebulae and 1931 hypothesis of the primeval atom laid the conceptual foundations of the Big Bang paradigm – provides both a historical anchor and an enduring source of inspiration for the research presented in this collection arising from the Lemaitre Conference 2024 held at the Vatican Observatory in Castel Gandolfo, 17-21 June 2024. This conference was the second in a series of workshops dedicated to this legacy, following the inaugural meeting of 2017 (see the special issue in Found. Phys., vol. 48). The combination of formal talks, extended daily discussion, and the uniquely welcoming and intellectually stimulating atmosphere of the Vatican Observatory, proved exceptionally productive. Specialists in cutting-edge observation, theoretical physicists, and historians of science were able to develop a shared language and to identify the most pressing open challenges in astrophysics, cosmology, and quantum gravity. The present topical collection gathers contributions from the invited speakers, offering a representative survey of the current state of the field.
All articles in this collection are free-to-read from 15 September to 15 November 2026.
Start by reading the summarizing Editorial:
Bianchi, M., Cacciatori, S.L., Galaverni, M. et al. Black holes, gravitational waves and space-time singularities (Lemaitre Conference 2024). Gen. Relativ. Gravit. 58, 108 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-026-03608-0