1997/01/14 by Thomas W. Baumgarte, Stuart L. Shapiro, Baumgarte, Thomas W. +8
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #Geophysics and Gravity Measurements #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #astro-ph #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.gr-qc/9701033
3 pages LaTeX using sprocl.sty, 2 figures, to appear in: Proceedings of the 18th Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics (eds Olinto, Frieman and Schramm, World Scientific)
arxiv created 1997/01/14 · openalex publication_date 1997/01/14 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We present a numerical scheme that solves the initial value problem in full general relativity for a binary neutron star in quasi-equilibrium. While Newtonian gravity allows for a strict equilibrium, a relativistic binary system emits gravitational radiation, causing the system to lose energy and slowly spiral inwards. However, since inspiral occurs on a time scale much longer than the orbital period, we can adopt a quasi-equilibrium approximation. In this approximation, we integrate a subset of the Einstein equations coupled to the equations of relativistic hydrodynamics to solve the initial value problem for binaries of arbitrary separation, down to the innermost stable orbit.