89 research outputs found
Ricci flows, wormholes and critical phenomena
We study the evolution of wormhole geometries under Ricci flow using
numerical methods. Depending on values of initial data parameters, wormhole
throats either pinch off or evolve to a monotonically growing state. The
transition between these two behaviors exhibits a from of critical phenomena
reminiscent of that observed in gravitational collapse. Similar results are
obtained for initial data that describe space bubbles attached to
asymptotically flat regions. Our numerical methods are applicable to
"matter-coupled" Ricci flows derived from conformal invariance in string
theory.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. References added and minor changes to match
version accepted by CQG as a fast track communicatio
Geodesic motion in the space-time of a cosmic string
We study the geodesic equation in the space-time of an Abelian-Higgs string
and discuss the motion of massless and massive test particles. The geodesics
can be classified according to the particles energy, angular momentum and
linear momentum along the string axis. We observe that bound orbits of massive
particles are only possible if the Higgs boson mass is smaller than the gauge
boson mass, while massless particles always move on escape orbits. Moreover,
neither massive nor massless particles can ever reach the string axis for
non-vanishing angular momentum. We also discuss the dependence of light
deflection by a cosmic string as well as the perihelion shift of bound orbits
of massive particles on the ratio between Higgs and gauge boson mass and the
ratio between symmetry breaking scale and Planck mass, respectively.Comment: 20 pages including 14 figures; v2: references added, discussion on
null geodesics extended, numerical results adde
Numerical Approaches to Spacetime Singularities
This Living Review updates a previous version which its itself an update of a
review article. Numerical exploration of the properties of singularities could,
in principle, yield detailed understanding of their nature in physically
realistic cases. Examples of numerical investigations into the formation of
naked singularities, critical behavior in collapse, passage through the Cauchy
horizon, chaos of the Mixmaster singularity, and singularities in spatially
inhomogeneous cosmologies are discussed.Comment: 51 pages, 6 figures may be found in online version: Living Rev.
Relativity 2002-1 at www.livingreviews.or
Axisymmetric general relativistic hydrodynamics: Long-term evolution of neutron stars and stellar collapse to neutron stars and black holes
We report a new implementation for axisymmetric simulation in full general
relativity. In this implementation, the Einstein equations are solved using the
Nakamura-Shibata formulation with the so-called cartoon method to impose an
axisymmetric boundary condition, and the general relativistic hydrodynamic
equations are solved using a high-resolution shock-capturing scheme based on an
approximate Riemann solver. As tests, we performed the following simulations:
(i) long-term evolution of non-rotating and rapidly rotating neutron stars,
(ii) long-term evolution of neutron stars of a high-amplitude damping
oscillation accompanied with shock formation, (iii) collapse of unstable
neutron stars to black holes, and (iv) stellar collapses to neutron stars. The
tests (i)--(iii) were carried out with the -law equation of state, and
the test (iv) with a more realistic parametric equation of state for
high-density matter. We found that this new implementation works very well: It
is possible to perform the simulations for stable neutron stars for more than
10 dynamical time scales, to capture strong shocks formed at stellar core
collapses, and to accurately compute the mass of black holes formed after the
collapse and subsequent accretion. In conclusion, this implementation is robust
enough to apply to astrophysical problems such as stellar core collapse of
massive stars to a neutron star and black hole, phase transition of a neutron
star to a high-density star, and accretion-induced collapse of a neutron star
to a black hole. The result for the first simulation of stellar core collapse
to a neutron star started from a realistic initial condition is also presented.Comment: 28 pages, to appear in PRD 67, 0440XX (2003
Characteristic Evolution and Matching
I review the development of numerical evolution codes for general relativity
based upon the characteristic initial value problem. Progress in characteristic
evolution is traced from the early stage of 1D feasibility studies to 2D
axisymmetric codes that accurately simulate the oscillations and gravitational
collapse of relativistic stars and to current 3D codes that provide pieces of a
binary black hole spacetime. Cauchy codes have now been successful at
simulating all aspects of the binary black hole problem inside an artificially
constructed outer boundary. A prime application of characteristic evolution is
to extend such simulations to null infinity where the waveform from the binary
inspiral and merger can be unambiguously computed. This has now been
accomplished by Cauchy-characteristic extraction, where data for the
characteristic evolution is supplied by Cauchy data on an extraction worldtube
inside the artificial outer boundary. The ultimate application of
characteristic evolution is to eliminate the role of this outer boundary by
constructing a global solution via Cauchy-characteristic matching. Progress in
this direction is discussed.Comment: New version to appear in Living Reviews 2012. arXiv admin note:
updated version of arXiv:gr-qc/050809
Loop Quantum Cosmology: A Status Report
The goal of this article is to provide an overview of the current state of
the art in loop quantum cosmology for three sets of audiences: young
researchers interested in entering this area; the quantum gravity community in
general; and, cosmologists who wish to apply loop quantum cosmology to probe
modifications in the standard paradigm of the early universe. An effort has
been made to streamline the material so that, as described at the end of
section I, each of these communities can read only the sections they are most
interested in, without a loss of continuity.Comment: 138 pages, 15 figures. Invited Topical Review, To appear in Classical
and Quantum Gravity. Typos corrected, clarifications and references adde
Exploring new physics frontiers through numerical relativity
The demand to obtain answers to highly complex problems within strong-field gravity has been met with significant progress in the numerical solution of Einstein's equations - along with some spectacular results - in various setups. We review techniques for solving Einstein's equations in generic spacetimes, focusing on fully nonlinear evolutions but also on how to benchmark those results with perturbative approaches. The results address problems in high-energy physics, holography, mathematical physics, fundamental physics, astrophysics and cosmology
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