G

  

T



Computational Relativity Black Holes and Gravitational Waves on a Laptop

Ray d’Inverno

Faculty of Mathematical Studies University of Southampton

Why Me and General Relativity?

“Is it true that only three people in the world understand Einstein’s theory of General Relativity?”

Sir Arthur Eddington

“Who is the third?” “... and there are only a few people in the world who understand General Relativity...”

The Einstein Theory of General Relativity

by Lilian R Lieber and Hugh R Lieber

Outline of Lecture

Algebraic Computing Special Relativity General Relativity Black Holes Gravitational Waves Exact Solutions Numerical Relativity

Einstein’s Field Equations (1915)

• Full field equations

G

  

T

 • Vacuum field equations

R

  0 • Complicated (second order non-linear system of partial differential equations) for determining the curved spacetime metric

g

 • How complicated?

SHEEP: 100,000 terms for general metric

Algebraic Computing

John McCarthy: LISP Symbolic manipulation planned as an application Jean Sammett:

“… It has become obvious that there a large number of problems requiring very

TEDIOUS… TIME-CONSUMING… ERROR-PRONE… STRAIGHTFORWARD

algebraic manipulation, and these characteristics make computer solution both necessary and desirable “

Ray d’Inverno:

LAM (LISP Algebraic Manipulator)

Why LISP?

Lists provide natural representation for algebraic expressions 3+1 (+ 3 1) ADM (* A D M) 2+2 (+ 2 2) DSS (* D (** S (2 1))) Recursive algorithms easily implemented e.g. (defun transfer ...

...

(transfer .....)) Automatic garbage collector

Example: Tower of Hanoi

Problem: Monks are playing this game in Hanoi with 64 disks.

When they finish the world will end.

Should we worry?

Example: Tower of Hanoi

Problem: Monks are playing this game in Hanoi with 64 disks.

When they finish the world will end.

Should we worry?

7

Use: 1 move a second, 1 year secs Moves

 2 64  1  ( 2 )  2 4  ( 1024 ) 6  16  ( 10 3 6 )  16  10 18  15 7  10 11 secs 11 years  10 (  10 ( 10 ) years  Age of Universe)

SHEEP FAMILY

LAM (Ray d’Inverno) ALAM (Ray d’Inverno) CLAM (Ray d’Inverno & Tony Russell-Clark) ILAM (Ian Cohen & Inge Frick) SHEEP (Inge Frick) CLASSI (Jan Aman) STENSOR (Lars Hornfeldt)

Einstein’s Special Relativity (1905)

Two basic postulates

• Inertial observers are equivalent • Velocity of light c is a constant Train at rest

New underlying principle:

Relativity of Simultaneity

Einstein train thought experiment

Train in motion

v v

New Physics

Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction

•

length contraction in the direction of motion

Time dilation

•

slowing down of clocks in motion

New composition law for velocities

•

ordinary bodies cannot attain the velocity of light

Equivalence of Mass and Energy

•

E



mc

2

New Mathematics

Newtonian time

•

Time is absolute

Newtonian space

•

Euclidean distance is invariant d

 2 

dx

2 

dy

2 

dz

2

Special Relativity: Minkowski spacetime

•

Interval between events is an invariant ds

2 

dt

2 

dx

2 

dy

2 

dz

2

“Henceforth, space by

itself, and time by itself are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only a kind of union of the two will preserve an

independent reality”

Hermann Minkowski

Einstein’s General Relativity (1915)

A theory of gravitation consistent with Special Relativity

Galileo’s Pisa observations:

“all bodies fall with the same acceleration irrespective of their mass and composition”

Einstein’s General Relativity (1915)

A theory of gravitation consistent with Special Relativity

Einstein’s Equivalence Principle:

“a body in an accelerated frame behaves the same as one in a frame at rest in a gravitational field, and a body in an unaccelerated frame behaves the same as one in free fall”

Galileo’s Pisa observations:

“all bodies fall with the same acceleration irrespective of their mass and composition”

Leads to the spacetime being

curved

Einstein’s lift thought experiment

A Theory of Curved Spacetime

Special Relativity:

-

Space-time is flat - Free particles/light rays travel on straight lines

General Relativity:

- Space-time is curved - Free particles/light rays travel on the “straightest lines” available: curved geodesics

Example: Planetary Motion

Newtonian explanation

: combination of •

inertial motion (motion in a straight line with constant velocity)

•

falling under gravity

Einsteinian explanation:

•

Sun curves up spacetime in its vicinity

•

Planet moves on a curved geodesic of the spacetime

John Archibald Wheeler:

“space tells matter how to move and matter tells space how to curve”

•

Intuitive idea: rubber sheet geometry

Schwarzschild Solution

• Full field equations

G

 • Vacuum field equations  

T



R

  0 • Einstein originally: too complicated to solve • Schwarzschild (spherically symmetric, static, vacuum) solution

ds

2    1  2

r m

 

dt

2 2

m r

   1

dr

2  2

r d

 2 

r

2 sin 2

d

 2

Spacetime Diagrams

Flat space of Special Relativity

Gravity tips and distorts the local light cones

Schwarzschild (original coordinates)

Black Holes

Schwarzschild (Eddington-Finkelstein coordinates) Tidal forces in a black hole

Gravitational Waves

Ripples in the curvature travelling with speed c A gravitational wave has 2 polarisation states

A long way from the source (asymptotically) the states are called “plus” and “cross”

The effect on a ring of tests particles Indirect evidence: Binary Pulsar 1913+16 (Hulse-Taylor 1993 Nobel prize)

Gravitational Wave Detection

• Weber bars • Ground based laser interferometers • Space based laser interferometers Low signal to noise ratio problem (duke box analogy) Method of matched filtering requires exact templates of the signal

New window onto the universe: Gravitational Astronomy

Exact Solutions

• Black holes (limiting solutions) • Schwarzschild • Reissner-Nordstrom (charged black hole) • Kerr (rotating black hole) • Kerr-Newman (charged rotating black hole) • Gravitational waves (idealised cases abstracted away from sources) • Plane fronted waves • Cylindrical waves • Hundreds of other exact solutions • But are they all different?

What Metric Is This?

Schwarzschild - in Cartesians coordinates Recall: Schwarzschild in spherical polar coordinates

ds

2 2

m r

 

dt

2 2

m r

   1

dr

2  2

r d

 2 

r

2 sin 2

d

 2

Equivalence Problem

Given two metrics: is there a coordinate transformation which converts one into the other?

Cartan : found a method for deciding, but it is too complicated to use in practise Brans: new idea Karlhede: provides an invariant method for classifying metrics Aman: implemented Karlhede method in CLASSI Skea, MacCallum, ...: Computer Database of Exact Solutions

Limitations Of Exact Solutions

No exact solutions for • 2 body problem e.g. binary black hole system • n body problem e.g. planetary system • Gravitational waves from a source e.g. radiating star

Numerical Relativity

• Numerical solution of Einstein’s equations using computers • Standard: finite difference on a finite grid • Mathematical formalisms • ADM 3+1 • DSS 2+2 • Simulations • 1 dimensional (spherical/cylindrical) • 2 dimensional (axial) • 3 dimensional (general) • Need for large scale computers • E.g. 100x100x100 grid points = 1 GB memory

The Southampton CCM Project

• Gravitational waves cannot be characterised exactly locally • Gravitational waves can be characterised exactly asymptotically • Standard 3+1 code on a finite grid leads to spurious numerical reflections at the boundary •CCM (Cauchy-Characteristic Matching) central 3+1 exterior null-timelike 2+2 timelike vacuum interface • Advantages generates global solution transparent interface exact asymptotic wave forms

Cylindrical Gravitational Waves

Colliding waves Waves from Cosmic Strings

Large Scale Simulations

• US Binary Black Hole Grand Challenge • NASA Neutron Star Grand Challenge • Albert Einstein Institute Numerical Relativity Group

European Union Network

Theoretical Foundations of Sources for Gravitational Wave Astronomy of the Next Century: Synergy between Supercomputer Simulations and Approximation Techniques

• 10 European Research Groups in France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain and UK • Need for large scale collaborative projects • Common computational platform: Cactus • Southampton’s role pivotal, team leader in:

- 3 dimensional CCM thorn - Development of asymptotic gravitational wave codes - Relativistic stellar perturbation theory - Neutron Star modelling

Summary

Summary

Tonight’s Gig