arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A. C. Searle.
Real Time Relativity is a computer program that allows the user to fly through a virtual world governed by relativistic physics. The user controls a 'rocket' carrying a 'camera'. The rocket may be accelerated and steered, and the camera may be pointed in any direction. It takes advantage of the fact that video cards provide inexpensive data-parallel processing and are designed to perform rapid arithmetic on four-dimensional vectors.
The software tool GRworkbench is an ongoing project in visual, numerical General Relativity at The Australian National University. Recently, GRworkbench has been significantly extended to facilitate numerical experimentation in analytically-defined space-times. The numerical differential geometric engine has been rewritten using functional programming techniques, enabling objects which are normally defined as functions in the formalism of differential geometry and General Relativity to be directly represented as function variables in the C++ code of GRworkbench. The new functional differential geometric engine allows for more accurate and efficient visualisation of objects in space-times and makes new, efficient computational techniques available. Motivated by the desire to investigate a recent scientific claim using GRworkbench, new tools for numerical experimentation have been implemented, allowing for the simulation of complex physical situations.