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GR: Fachverband Gravitation und Relativitätstheorie

GR 6: Hauptvorträge Mittwoch

GR 6.1: Invited Talk

Wednesday, March 11, 2009, 08:30–09:15, A214

Relativistic Figures of Equilibrium — •David Petroff — Theoretisch-Physikalisches Institut, Jena, Germany

Motivated by the desire to model celestial bodies, a great deal of impressive work in Newtonian gravity concerned itself with self-gravitating fluids in equilibrium. Contributors to the field include some of the most illustrious names in physics and mathematics and a seminal book on the subject, ``Ellipsoidal Figures of Equilibrium'', was written by Chandrasekhar in 1969.

In this talk, I will discuss the analogous problem in general relativity. The analytic treatment of a small number of important limiting cases will be presented, but also numerical methods for dealing with the general problem. The application of these methods to exemplary situations will allow us to understand many interesting features of such figures of equilibrium and determine some of their generic properties.