Science

Finite Difference Methods in Numerical Relativity

Name: Finite Difference Methods in Numerical Relativity
Author: Chirvasa, Mihaela
ISBN: 9783639288100

by Chirvasa, Mihaela

Available on Bookshop Available on Amazon Write a review

Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.

Synopsis

This work concerns the development of high order accurate finite difference techniques for the discretization of hyperbolic systems that are first order in time and second order in space. Its motivation comes from numerical relativity where many current formulations of the Einstein equations have this form. It pays special attention to the case where some first order derivatives are approximated with non-centered finite difference operators. This case is important because in numerical simulations of black holes using the BSSN formulation, it has been observed that a one-point off-centering of the derivatives from the Lie terms is essential for the accuracy and the lifetime of the simulation. In the particular case of the shifted wave equation -a simple but very powerful tool in numerical relativity -it is shown here analytically that, although off-centered operators have larger truncation errors than the centered ones, there are indeed situations where off-centering is beneficial for accuracy. This system and yet another one- dimensional model (BSSN in spherical symmetry) are also investigated with respect to the numerical treatment of boundaries.