Black Holes and Gravitational Waves: Spacetime Engineering

Abstract

General relativity — Einstein’s theory of relativistic gravitation — is the cornerstone of modern cosmology, the physics of neutron stars and black holes, the generation of gravitational radiation, and countless other cosmic phenomena in which strong-field gravitation is believed to play a dominant role. Yet the theory remains largely untested, except in the weak-field, slowvelocity regime. Moreover, solutions to Einstein’s equations, except for a few idealized cases characterized by high degrees of symmetry, have not been obtained as yet for many of the important dynamical scenarios thought to occur in nature. Only now, with the advent of supercomputers, is it possible to tackle these highly nonlinear equations numerically and explore these scenarios in detail. That is the main goal of numerical relativity, the art and science of developing computer algorithms to solve Einstein’s equations for physically realistic, high-velocity, strong-field systems. Numerical relativity also has a pressing goal — to calculate gravitational waveforms from promising astrophysical sources, in order to provide theoretical templates for the gravitational wave laser interferometers now under construction in the US, Europe and Japan.KeywordsBlack HoleNeutron StarEvent HorizonGravitational WaveNumerical RelativityThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.