The Grainger College of Engineering

New relativity text gets stellar reviews

9/15/2010

A new textbook on numerical relativity by Stuart Shapiro and Thomas Baumgarte is being hailed by reviewers as “a useful reference to the researcher and a source of enlightenment to many a student”; “exceedingly well-written”; and “a timely contribution to the literature” and “soon to become the standard advanced text”; “the authoritative reference.”

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A new textbook on numerical relativity by Stuart Shapiro and Thomas Baumgarte is being hailed by reviewers as “a useful reference to the researcher and a source of enlightenment to many a student”; “exceedingly well-written”; and “a timely contribution to the literature” and “soon to become the standard advanced text”; “the authoritative reference.”

 

Numerical Relativity: Solving Einstein’s Equations on the Computer is designed to serve as a primer for students and new researchers in the growing field of computational relativity.

 

 

The 700-page text includes many full-color figures to illustrate complex geometrical constructs and the results of computer simulations. The mathematical formalism for numerical relativity is developed from first principles, and 300 exercises are provided so readers can master new material as it is presented.

Applications discussed include calculations of coalescing binary black holes and binary neutron stars, rotating stars, colliding star clusters, gravitational and magnetorotational collapse, critical phenomena, and the generation of gravitational waves—all in full numerical general relativity.

Stuart Shapiro and Thomas Baumgarte
Stuart Shapiro and Thomas Baumgarte

Stuart Shapiro is a professor of physics and of astronomy at the University of Illinois. Thomas Baumgarte, who worked with Shapiro as a postdoctoral research associate and remains an adjunct professor of physics at Illinois, is a professor of physics and chair of the Physics and Astronomy Department at Bowdoin College.

Baumgarte and Shapiro are described by Sir Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal and Master of Trinity College, Cambridge University, as “established leaders in their field,” whose book is “a timely contribution to the literature and the ideal primer for researchers newly attracted to the burgeoning field of computational relativity.”
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Contact: Stuart Shapiro, Department of Physics, 217/333-5427.

 

Writer: Celia M. Elliott, Department of Physics, 217/244-7725.

If you have any questions about the College of Engineering, or other story ideas, contact Rick Kubetz, Engineering Communications Office, 217/244-7716, editor.

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This story was published September 15, 2010.