Welcome!
Welcome to the conference Numerical Modelling of Astrophysical Sources of Gravitational Radiation to be held in Valencia (Spain) from September 8th to 12th 2008.
Einstein's theory of general relativity plays a major role in astrophysics, most notably in scenarios involving compact objects such as neutron stars and black holes. Those include gravitational collapse, gamma-ray burts, accretion, relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei, or the merger of compact neutron star and black hole binaries. Astronomers have long been scrutinizing these systems using the complete frequency range of the electromagnetic spectrum. Nowadays, they are also the main targets for ground-based laser interferometers of gravitational radiation. The direct detection of these elusive ripples in the curvature of spacetime, and the wealth of new information that could be extracted thereof, is one of the driving motivations of present-day research in relativistic astrophysics.
Theoretical astrophysics has long relied on numerical simulations as a formidable way to improve our understanding of the dynamics of astrophysical systems. This will be the main focus of the conference. This international scientific meeting will bring together numerical relativists and astrophysicists with the goal of reviewing the current status of gravitational wave source simulation. There have been significant advances in recent years in the numerical computation of the gravitational radiation for most relevant astrophysical sources, as that produced in gravitational stellar collapse leading to neutron stars and black holes or that coming from violent instabilities in rotating neutron stars. In addition, remarkable success has also been achieved in evolutions of compact binaries, both for the binary neutron star case as for the binary black hole case alike, which posed a tremendous challenge for numerical relativity not that long ago. The models are being increasingly improved with the incorporation of long-term stable formulations of the Einstein equations, advanced numerical techniques, and additional physics for the modelling of compact stars, such as magnetic fields and microphysical equations of state.
Last but not least, the ongoing simulations and the templates of gravitational waves they produce may be about to start confronting experimentation, with the first generation of ground-based gravitational wave interferometers already collecting data.
We hope you enjoy the conference and spend a wonderful time in Valencia!