Selected Papers from the 3rd International Online Conference on Universe (IOCU 2026)
Special Issue Editors
Interests: general relativity and gravitation; classical general relativity; post-newtonian approximation; perturbation theory; related approximations; gravitational waves; observational cosmology; mathematical and relativistic aspects of cosmology; modified theories of gravity; higher-dimensional gravity and other theories of gravity; experimental studies of gravity; experimental tests of gravitational theories; geodesy and gravity; harmonics of the gravity potential field; geopotential theory and determination; satellite orbits; orbit determination and improvement; astrometry and reference systems; ephemerides, almanacs, and calendars; lunar, planetary, and deep-space probes
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Interests: hydrodynamics in high-energy heavy ion physics; Bose–Einstein correlations; femtoscopy; forward (small-x) processes in particle physics
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Interests: cosmology; inflation; vacuum
Interests: quasars and active galactic nuclei (AGN); photoionization and dynamical modelling of gaseous regions producing emission lines in a variety of contexts (from emission-line stars to the most powerful quasars); small- and large-scale structures in the universe and observational cosmology
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Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The 3rd International Online Conference on Universe (IOCU 2026) will be held from 4 to 6 March 2026 (https://sciforum.net/event/IOCU2026), following the great success of its 2021 and 2023 editions. This online conference will be hosted on sciforum.net, an online platform developed by MDPI to facilitate scholarly exchange, collaboration, and knowledge sharing among the global community of researchers in universe-related fields.
During the event, varied excellent contributions covering key areas of opportunities and challenges in the discipline will be presented. More specifically, the conference will focus on the following topics:
- Gravitation and Cosmology;
- Quantum Gravity and Field Theory;
- High-Energy Nuclear and Particle Physics;
- Foundations of Quantum Mechanics;
- Space and Planetary Sciences;
- Galaxies, Clusters and Compact Objects;
- Solar and Stellar Physics.
This Special Issue welcomes selected papers from IOCU 2026 that promote and advance new knowledge, innovative methods, and cutting-edge findings in this exciting and rapidly evolving field.
All submitted contributions will be subjected to MDPI’s standard rigorous peer-review process. Upon acceptance, studies will be published with the aim of rapidly and widely disseminating high-quality research results, technological developments, and practical applications to the global academic community.
To ensure the academic depth and novelty of the submissions, the following requirements must be met for the manuscripts:
- Submitted manuscripts should contain at least 50% additional, new, and unpublished material compared to the corresponding IOCU 2026 conference abstract or proceedings (if applicable), and they should be expanded to be the length of a standard research article;
- The IOCU 2026 conference abstract (and proceedings paper, if any) must be cited and clearly noted on the first page of the manuscript;
- If the authors do not hold the copyright for the published IOCU 2026 conference materials (if any such copyright exists), written permission must be obtained from the original copyright holder and submitted along with the manuscript;
- Authors are required to disclose in their cover letter that the manuscript is an expanded version of an IOCU 2026 conference contribution and provide a detailed statement describing the specific changes, additions, and improvements made to the original conference content.
In addition, authors of papers accepted for publication in this Special Issue will be eligible for a 20% discount on the publication fee of Universe (ISSN: 2218-1997). Please note that this conference discount can be combined with IOAP/association discounts (if applicable) but cannot be combined with reviewer vouchers.
We look forward to receiving your valuable contributions and jointly promoting the development of research in the fields of gravitation, cosmology, astrophysics, and related disciplines.
Prof. Dr. Lorenzo Iorio
Prof. Dr. Máté Csanád
Prof. Dr. Joan Solà Peracaula
Dr. Paola Marziani
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Universe is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- gravitation and cosmology
- quantum gravity and field theory
- high-energy nuclear and particle physics
- foundations of quantum mechanics
- space and planetary sciences
- galaxies, clusters and compact objects
- solar and stellar physics
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