General Relativity and Relativistic Astrophysics

General-relativistic Visualization General Relativity

I n our previous article about special-relativistic visualization,1 we described what the travelers from our highly developed civilization observed when they passed the Earth; now, they set out for the Cygnus X-1 binary system, which is roughly 6,000 light years away. The Cygnus X-1 system consists of a super giant variable star (HDE 226868) and a very compact object—presumably a black hole—wit...

General relativistic hydrodynamics and magnetohydrodynamics: hyperbolic systems in relativistic astrophysics

Summary of sessions B1/B2 and B2: relativistic astrophysics and numerical relativity

The numerical relativity session at GR18 was dominated by physics results on binary black hole mergers. Several groups can now simulate these from a time when the post-Newtonian equations of motion are still applicable, through several orbits and the merger to the ringdown phase, obtaining plausible gravitational waves at infinity, and showing some evidence of convergence with resolution. The r...

Relativistic Astrophysics Explorer

The great success of the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) has shown that X-ray timing is an excellent tool for the study of strong gravitational fields and the measurement of fundamental physical properties of black holes and neutron stars. Here, we describe a next-generation X-ray timing mission, the Relativistic Astrophysics Explorer (RAE), designed to fit within the envelope of a medium-si...

Post-Relativistic Gravity — A Hidden Variable Theory For General Relativity

Post-relativistic gravity is a hidden variable theory for general relativity. It introduces the pre-relativistic notions absolute space, absolute time, and ether as hidden variables into general relativity. Evolution is defined by the equations of general relativity and the harmonic coordinate condition interpreted as a physical equation. There are minor differences in predictions compared with...