Speaker: Werner Benger

Title: Scientific Visualization: Tackling the Riddles of Gravity via Numerical Relativity

Date and Time: Friday, February 6th, 2004, 3:00 PM
Place: Coates Hall 212, LSU

Abstract:

The two-body problem in general relativity can only be handled by means of numerical supercomputer simulations, such as those developed and performed by the numerical relativity working group at the Max-Planck Institute for Gravitational physics in Golm (Germany), also known as Albert-Einstein Institute AEI. Curved spacetime is described via tensor fields, but appropriate visualizations methods are rare, especially when considering the huge data size in range of 100GB and more in this specific case, and also due to time-dependcy of these data.

In this talk the project ART (shortcut of the german translation for "theory of general relativity", with its intended side-meaning), a joint effort between the visualization department of the Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB) and the AEI, will be presented. This project investigates appropriate visualization methods for tensor fields, whereby the possible range of applicability is not limited to just general relativity, but of broad interest also in other domains like medical imaging