Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Scalar Fields in Numerical General Relativity

Inhomogeneous Inflation and Asymmetric Bubble Collapse

  • Book
  • © 2018

Overview

Authors:
  1. Katy Clough

    1. Institute for Astrophysics, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Nominated as an outstanding Ph.D. thesis by the King's College London, UK
  • Offers a clear and pedagogical introduction to the process of simulating spacetimes using numerical relativity (NR), ideal for PhD students commencing work in the field
  • Describes one of the first uses of NR to study inflationary physics beyond the perturbative regime and in the absence of symmetry assumptions, which is proving to be a new and rapidly developing field of research
  • Provides a useful reference for those wishing to use the publicly available GRChombo code for numerical relativity, which this work helped develop

Part of the book series: Springer Theses (Springer Theses)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xx
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Background Material

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
      Download chapter PDF

    2. Introduction

      • Katy Clough
      Pages 3-29

    3. Technical Background

      • Katy Clough
      Pages 31-83

  3. Code Development Work

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 85-85
      Download chapter PDF

    2. GRChombo - Code Development and Testing

      • Katy Clough
      Pages 87-126

  4. Research work

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 127-127
      Download chapter PDF

    2. Inhomogeneous Inflation

      • Katy Clough
      Pages 129-155

    3. Critical Bubble Collapse

      • Katy Clough
      Pages 157-172

  5. Conclusions

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 173-173
      Download chapter PDF

    2. Conclusions and Further Work

      • Katy Clough
      Pages 175-181

  6. Back Matter

    Pages 183-197
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

This book explores the use of numerical relativity (NR) methods to solve cosmological problems, and describes one of the first uses of NR to study inflationary physics. NR consists in the solution of Einstein’s Equation of general relativity, which governs the evolution of matter and energy on cosmological scales, and in systems where there are strong gravitational effects, such as around black holes. To date, NR has mainly been used for simulating binary black hole and neutron star mergers like those detected recently by LIGO. Its use as a tool in fundamental problems of gravity and cosmology is novel, but rapidly gaining interest.

In this thesis, the author investigates the initial condition problem in early universe cosmology – whether an inflationary expansion period could have “got going” from initially inhomogeneous conditions – and identifies criteria for predicting the robustness of particular models. State-of-the-art numerical relativity tools are developed in order to address this question, which are now publicly available.


Authors and Affiliations

  • Institute for Astrophysics, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

    Katy Clough

About the author

Katy Clough studied Engineering Science at Oxford University, before embarking on a short-lived career in finance. An Open University degree in Physics inspired her to return to academia and she subsequently completed her PhD at King’s College London under the supervision of Dr Eugene Lim. Her first postdoctoral position is at Goettingen University in Germany, the former home of many great physicists and mathematicians including Riemann, Noether, Hilbert, Planck and Heisenberg. From October 2018 she will return to Oxford for a second postdoctoral position in the Beecroft Institute of Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Scalar Fields in Numerical General Relativity

  • Book Subtitle: Inhomogeneous Inflation and Asymmetric Bubble Collapse

  • Authors: Katy Clough

  • Series Title: Springer Theses

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92672-8

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Physics and Astronomy, Physics and Astronomy (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-92671-1Published: 26 June 2018

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-06487-7Published: 22 December 2018

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-92672-8Published: 16 June 2018

  • Series ISSN: 2190-5053

  • Series E-ISSN: 2190-5061

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XX, 197

  • Number of Illustrations: 84 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Cosmology, Classical and Quantum Gravitation, Relativity Theory, Numerical and Computational Physics, Simulation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation