NPAC Technical Report SCCS-680

A Description of the Initial Value Formulation of Vacuum General Relativity for the Non-Specialist

Mark Miller

Submitted October 10 1994


Abstract

In any specialized scientific endeavor, the workers in that specific area develop their own language, or jargon, that can be confusing for the non-specialist (and, at times, for the specialist, too!). This makes it difficult for scientists to ``latch-on'' to fields that are outside their area of expertise. General Relativity is certainly no exception. In light of the Computational Grand Challenge Program ``Black Hole Binaries: Coalescence and Gravitational Radiation,'' there is a need for a ``jargonless'' description of the formulation of General Relativity that is used in computer simulations (i.e. its initial value formulation). This paper is an attempt at meeting this need.


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