Workshop on the Interface between Post-Newtonian Theory and Numerical Relativity

Washington University, Saint Louis MO

Investigators

Abstract

This award provides travel support for a workshop intended to bring together active researchers in Post-Newtonian (PN) theory and in Numerical Relativity (NR) in order to make progress on the interface between the two approaches, with the goal of developing a seamless description of the inspiral, merger and ringdown of binary systems of compact objects. Among the problems to be addressed are (i) PN initial data for NR simulations, (ii) ways to stitch together PN and NR gravitational waveforms (iii) use of PN diagnostic tools for NR initial data and (iv) relative performance of different representations of PN series. The workshop will be held at Washington University in St. Louis, February 8 - 11, 2007. The format of the workshop will be lectures in the morning that highlight the central questions and problems, and working sessions in the afternoon where workers can share ideas, argue, run NR codes, do PN expansions, simulate data analysis, etc. Recent breakthroughs in simulating the inspiral and merger of black holes and neutron stars using numerical relativity and the continuing need for accurate templates for the full gravitational-wave signal to support data analysis at interferometers like LIGO, VIRGO or LISA, have made more pressing the question of how to link post-Newtonian (PN) methods, which describe the early part of the inspiral, with the methods of numerical relativity (NR), which describe the final orbits, the merger and the ringdown. The workshop will include the participation of postdocs and graduate students, so it will have an impact on the education and training of future scientists in this field.