Evidence Hub

Numerical Relativity and Astrophysics

Luis Lehner, Frans Pretorius

Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 2014

129 citations

Abstract

Throughout the Universe many powerful events are driven by strong gravitational effects that require general relativity to fully describe them. These include compact binary mergers, black hole accretion, and stellar collapse, where velocities can approach the speed of light and extreme gravitational fields (ΦNewt/c2≃1) mediate the interactions. Many of these processes trigger emission across a broad range of the electromagnetic spectrum. Compact binaries further source strong gravitational wave emission that could directly be detected in the near future. This feat will open up a gravitational wave window into our Universe and revolutionize our understanding of it. Describing these phenomena requires general relativity, and—where dynamical effects strongly modify gravitational fields—the full Einstein equations coupled to matter sources. Numerical relativity is a field within general relativity concerned with studying such scenarios that cannot be accurately modeled via perturbative or analytical calculations. In this review, we examine results obtained within this discipline, with a focus on its impact in astrophysics.

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free