SPEAKER: Leonardo Gualtieri (Università di Roma)
ABSTRACT: Quasi-periodic oscillations observed in the X-ray flux emitted by accreting black holes carry the imprint of the (still elusive) strong-field regime of gravity. Therefore, they are a promising tool to test general relativity against
alternative theory of gravity, such as Einstein-Dilaton Gauss-Bonnet theory, which is one of the best motivated
extensions of general relativity. A detection of quasi-periodic oscillations with the expected sensitivity of the proposed ESA mission LOFT would set stringent constraints on the parameter space of this theory.