Numerical Relativity: Starting from Scratch (Hardcover)

Numerical relativity has emerged as the key tool to model gravitational waves - recently detected for the first time - that are emitted when black holes or neutron stars collide. This book provides a pedagogical, accessible, and concise introduction to the subject. Relying heavily on analogies with Newtonian gravity, scalar fields and electromagnetic fields, it introduces key concepts of numerical relativity in a context familiar to readers without prior expertise in general relativity. Readers can explore these concepts by working through numerous exercises, and can see them 'in action' by experimenting with the accompanying Python sample codes, and so develop familiarity with many techniques commonly employed by publicly available numerical relativity codes. This is an attractive, student-friendly resource for short courses on numerical relativity, as well as providing supplementary reading for courses on general relativity and computational physics.

數值相對論已成為模擬黑洞或中子星碰撞時發出的引力波的關鍵工具，這些引力波最近首次被檢測到。本書提供了一個教學性、易於理解且簡潔的介紹。它在很大程度上依賴於牛頓引力、純量場和電磁場的類比，以一個對於沒有普通相對論先備知識的讀者來說熟悉的背景下介紹了數值相對論的關鍵概念。讀者可以通過完成大量練習來探索這些概念，並通過實驗附帶的Python示例代碼來觀察它們的實際應用，從而熟悉公開可用的數值相對論代碼常用的許多技術。這是一本吸引人且學生友好的資源，適用於數值相對論的短期課程，同時也可作為普通相對論和計算物理課程的補充閱讀材料。