Conference Support Grant: Numerical Relativity beyond General Relativity

California Institute Of Technology, Pasadena CA

Investigators

Abstract

One of the main goals of the field of gravitational-wave astronomy with Advanced LIGO is testing Einstein's theory of general relativity (GR) in a regime where it has never been tested before. The impact of such science is potentially transformative, and may yield insights into a new paradigm of gravitational physics. Accomplishing this goal will require a new generation of numerical simulations of merging black holes and neutron stars. Not only does the community need more precise simulations within GR, but also to explore full numerical simulations of mergers in theories beyond GR. Such simulations are at the forefront of gravity research. This is the first meeting with a focus on numerical simulations in theories beyond GR. This one-week long international workshop, "Numerical Relativity beyond General Relativity", aims at introducing this emerging field to the larger community. Performing numerical simulations in beyond-GR theories has long been desired, but few groups have made the efforts to tackle the problem. The main goals of this workshop will be to disseminate information among all the researchers actively making progress on this topic, and newcomers who are going to become future leaders in this field. This will cross-pollinate and plant future research ideas. The participants are drawn from the fields of numerical simulation, gravitational-wave data analysis, and theories beyond GR. The format includes structured talks (e.g. mathematical formalism, different numerical approaches, statuses of simulations in scalar-tensor, Einstein-dilaton-Gauss-Bonnet, Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton, Chern-Simons, bimetric theory), and open discussions (e.g. waveform requirements, open source codes, numerics in Anti-de-Sitter space). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.