GLOBAL STUDIES OF EINSTEIN SPACETMES

Yale University, New Haven CT

Investigators

Abstract

This project deals with two major areas of mathematical relativity which border on the fields of 3-manifold topology on the one hand and numerical/experimental relativity on the other. The first research topic treats the question of how the spatial topology of the universe affects its long-time evolution. The second topic involves the development of an efficient and accurate numerical scheme for the computation of gravitational waves produced by colliding black holes. The importance of the first topic is that it seeks to unify the study of the evolutionary properties of the universe with various geometrization results and conjectures from pure mathematics, thereby broadening the scope of results in either field of study. The importance of the second topic is that it seeks to support the experimental search for gravitational waves by improving the theoretical understanding of possible sources of such waves.