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C U R R E N T R E S E A R C H
 Researchers
at Cornell are designing computer code to model some of the most
violent events in the cosmos; namely, the inspiral of binary black
holes.
Because of the massive amount of information processing involved
in this project, it is only feasible through the use of supercomputers
at Cornell and across the country. Because of the variability in
computer systems, this also demands that the code be portable and
simple to manage.
Of
course, the main goal of this project is to better understand black
hole dynamics and to test new algorithms in numerical relativity.
But it may also yield some useful data for other areas of physics.
For example, one of the effects of black hole collisions is the
production of gravitational waves; and in part, these computer models
will help to predict the form of gravitational waves received at
observatories such as LIGO.
Originally, this project was begun as part of the NSF Grand Challenge,
and much of the research would not have been possible without
their support.
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