2003/01/31 by Nigel T. Bishop, Roberto Gomez, Roberto Gómez +4 · 2 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Aerospace engineering #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Black hole (networking) #Classical mechanics #Computer science #Dark matter #Einstein field equations #General relativity #Geodesic #Geometry #Gravitation #Gravitational collapse #Gravitational field #Kerr metric #Massive particle #Mathematics #Numerical relativity #Orbit (dynamics) #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Schwarzschild geodesics #Schwarzschild metric #Schwarzschild radius #Solving the geodesic equations #Test particle #White hole #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.68.084015
published as Phys.Rev. D68 (2003) 084015 · 12 pages, 9 figures, RevTeX4, to appear in Phys. Rev. D
arxiv created 2003/09/15 · openalex publication_date 2003/10/31 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We present a method for computing the evolution of a spacetime containing a massive particle and a black hole. The essential idea is that the gravitational field is evolved using full numerical relativity, with the particle generating a nonzero source term in the Einstein equations. The matter fields are not evolved by hydrodynamic equations. Instead the particle is treated as a quasirigid body whose center follows a geodesic. The necessary theoretical framework is developed and then implemented in a computer code that uses the null-cone, or characteristic, formulation of numerical relativity. The performance of the code is illustrated in test runs, including a complete orbit (near r=9M) of a Schwarzschild black hole.