arXiv subjects

David Hilditch

Publications and source records attributed to David Hilditch.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Comparing twist-free axisymmetric gravitational waves near the black hole threshold

The threshold of black hole formation in axisymmetric vacuum gravity is proving to be more complicated than had been anticipated but, following recent advances, a consensus between independent codes and methods is emerging. Building on earlier work we provide further details of a comparison between three independent numerical codes (the bamps, prague, and sphGR codes), paying special attention to the relative strengths and weaknesses of each and examining various features of near-threshold collapse of vacuum gravitational waves for the first time. In particular, we observe quasi-universal strong-field features appearing in curvature scalars. Focusing on geometric features on the symmetry axis, we construct reference coordinates to aid the comparison of strong-field data. We evolve, for the first time, time-asymmetric wave initial data within the bamps code. To the extent possible with current methods we compare apparent horizons and attempt to determine what causes difficulties in the classification of these strong-field and highly dynamical spacetimes. In all cases the results from the three codes agree very well.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2026

Critical collapse of vacuum spacetimes: Nakamura wave initial data

We report on numerical simulations of critical phenomena in the collapse of axisymmetric vacuum gravitational waves, adopting families of initial data that, to the best of our knowledge, have not been used in this context before. Like Teukolsky waves, the data are based on linear wave solutions to the Einstein equations. We follow Nakamura's construction and encode the wave content in the extrinsic curvature rather than the spatial curvature, which leads to several simplifications when the data are "dressed up" so that they satisfy the nonlinear constraint equations. We are able to fine-tune these data to the onset of black hole formation slightly better than in our previous simulations, allowing us to observe and examine one more echo in the approximately self-similar threshold solution. Our findings are consistent with earlier studies: while we find threshold solutions that are approximately discretely self-similar, the self-similarity is not exact, and we find no evidence for a unique critical solution. We discuss common features between the different threshold solutions, including the appearance of alternating maxima in the direction of the poles and the equator.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2026

Strong Hyperbolicity of Second-Order PDEs via Matrix Pencils

We introduce a definition of strong hyperbolicity for second order partial differential equations using second order pencils. We show that this definition is equivalent to the standard one, derived by reducing the equations to first order form, but with the benefit of simplifying the calculations necessary to check hyperbolicity. In addition, we observe an interesting property, namely that when a system is strongly hyperbolic, its second order pencil can be factorized as a product of two diagonalizable first order pencils. Finally, we present an application to a vector potential for of Maxwell's equations, with a general extension and gauge fixing.

math.AP↗

arXiv2025

Existence and stability of discretely self-similar blowup for a wave maps type equation

We study finite-time blowup for a nonlinear wave equation for maps from the Minkowski space $\mathbb{R}^{1+d}$ into the 1-sphere $\mathbb{S}^1$, whose nonlinearity exhibits a null-form structure. We construct, for every dimension $d \geq 1$, a countable family of discretely self-similar blowup solutions, which are even for $d=1$ and radial for $d \geq 2$. The main contribution of the paper is a detailed nonlinear stability analysis of this family of solutions. For $d \geq 2$, we consider radial data, while in $d=1$ we allow for general perturbations. After linearizing around the self-similar profiles in similarity variables, we construct resolvents of the resulting highly non-self-adjoint operators through Liouville-Green transformations and precise Volterra-type asymptotics. The construction itself, which occupies most of the paper, is technically challenging, as it is performed in arbitrary dimensions and for a countable family of operators in each. Combined with a detailed spectral analysis of the linearized operators, this yields sharp semigroup bounds and allows us to establish nonlinear stability of all discretely self-similar profiles in all dimensions, with precise co-dimension determined by the unstable spectrum. To our knowledge, this is the first result on the existence and stability of discretely self-similar blowup for a geometric wave equation.

math.AP↗

arXiv2025

Twist and higher modes of a complex scalar field at the threshold of collapse

We investigate the threshold of collapse of a massless complex scalar field in axisymmetric spacetimes under the ansatz of Choptuik et al. 2004, in which a symmetry depending on the azimuthal parameter $m$ is imposed on the scalar field. This allows for both non-vanishing twist and angular momentum. We extend earlier work to include higher angular modes. Using the pseudospectral code bamps with a new adapted symmetry reduction method, which we call $m$-cartoon, and a generalized twist-compatible apparent horizon finder, we evolve near-critical initial data to the verge of black hole formation for the lowest nontrivial modes, $m=1$ and $m=2$. For $m=1$ we recover discrete self-similarity with echoing period $\Delta\simeq0.42$ and power-law scaling with exponent $\gamma\simeq0.11$, consistent with earlier work. For $m=2$ we find that universality is maintained within this nonzero fixed-$m$ symmetry class but with smaller period and critical exponents, $\Delta\simeq0.09$ and $\gamma\simeq0.035$, establishing an explicit dependence of the critical solution on the angular mode. Analysis of the relation between the angular momentum and the mass of apparent horizons at the instant of formation, $J_{\mathrm{AH}}{-}M_{\mathrm{AH}}$, shows that the effect of angular momentum is minimal at the threshold, with $\chi_{\mathrm{AH}}=J_{\mathrm{AH}}/M_{\mathrm{AH}}^2\to0$, and, therefore, excludes extremal black holes for the families under consideration. Our results demonstrate that while universality and DSS hold within each $m$-sector, the critical universal values vary with $m$, and neither extremality nor bifurcation occur in the complex scalar field model within the families considered here.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Characteristic Critical Collapse of a Yang-Mills Field With Null Infinity

Solutions to the Einstein equations near the threshold of black hole formation exhibit remarkable behavior known as critical phenomena gravitational collapse. In this work we perform characteristic evolution in compactified Bondi coordinates in order to study the critical collapse of a Yang-Mills field, allowing for the extraction of global quantities such as the Bondi mass and news function. Our numerical approach is fourth-order accurate. First, we demonstrate that the collapsing field exhibits local DSS behavior, characterized by an echoing period of~$\Delta \simeq 0.7388$, agreeing with previous works up to the second decimal place. We find that global quantities such as the Bondi mass and news function display the same DSS behavior. We furthermore show that the mass of the black holes formed during near-threshold evolutions scales as a function of the distance to the critical parameter, with a critical exponent of approximately~$\gamma=0.1977\pm0.0009$. Finally, our findings indicate that these results are universal, irrespective of the initial data.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Topical Collection-Hyperboloidal Foliations in the Era of Gravitational-Wave Astronomy: From Mathematical Relativity to Astrophysics

Editorial introducing the GRG Topical Collection "Hyperboloidal foliations in the era of gravitational-wave astronomy," on hyperboloidal slices. The collection includes contributions spanning black-hole perturbations, asymptotic geometry, initial-data, and high-accuracy numerical methods relevant to gravitational-wave modeling. The collection grew out of the 2023 "Infinity on a Gridshell" workshop in Copenhagen.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Critical Phenomena in Gravitational Collapse

As first discovered by Choptuik, the black hole threshold in the space of initial data for general relativity shows both surprising structure and surprising simplicity. Universality, power-law scaling of the black hole mass, and scale echoing have given rise to the term ``critical phenomena''. They are explained by the existence of exact solutions which are attractors within the black hole threshold, that is, attractors of codimension one in phase space, and which are typically self-similar. Critical phenomena give a natural route from smooth initial data to arbitrarily large curvatures visible from infinity, and are therefore likely to be relevant for cosmic censorship, quantum gravity, astrophysics, and our general understanding of the dynamics of general relativity. Major additions since the 2010 version of this review are numerical simulations beyond spherical symmetry, in particular of vacuum critical collapse, and new sections on mathematical results in PDE blowup (as a toy model for singularity formation) and on naked singularity formation in GR.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Semiclassical evolution of a dynamically formed spherical black hole with an inner horizon

In this work we obtain a numerical self-consistent spherical solution of the semiclassical Einstein equations representing the evaporation of a trapped region which initially has both an outer and an inner horizon. The classical matter source used is a static electromagnetic field, allowing for an approximately Reissner-Nordstr\"om black hole as the initial configuration, where the charge sets the initial scale of the inner horizon. The semiclassical contribution is that of a quantum scalar field in the "in" vacuum state of gravitational collapse, as encoded by the renormalised stress-energy tensor in the spherical Polyakov approximation. We analyse the rate of shrinking of the trapped region, both from Hawking evaporation of the outer apparent horizon, as well as from an outward motion of the inner horizon. We also observe that a long-lived anti-trapped region forms below the inner horizon and slowly expands outward. A black-to-white-hole transition is thus obtained from purely semiclassical dynamics.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Strong hyperboloidal compactification for the spherical DF-GHG formulation of GR

The use of compactified hyperboloidal coordinates for metric formulations of the Einstein field Equations introduces formally singular terms in the equations of motion whose numerical treatment requires care. In this paper we study a particular choice of constraint addition, choice of gauge and reduction fields in order to minimize the number of these terms in a spherically symmetric reduction of the Dual-Foliation Generalized Harmonic Gauge formulation of General Relativity. We proceed to the numerical implementation of a more aggressive compactification, as compared to our previous work. With the present setup there is a direct analogy with conformal compactification used in other approaches to the use of hyperboloidal coordinates. We present numerical results of constraints violating and satisfying perturbations on top of a Schwarzschild black hole. For small perturbations we recover the expected physics from linear theory, corresponding to quasi normal mode ringing and tail decay for a scalar field, both extracted directly at future null infinity from our numerical data.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Pseudospectral implementation of the Einstein-Maxwell system

Electromagnetism plays an important role in a variety of applications in gravity that we wish to investigate. To that end, in this work, we present an implementation of the Maxwell equations within the adaptive-mesh pseudospectral numerical relativity code BAMPS. We perform a thorough analysis of the evolution equations as a first order symmetric hyperbolic system of PDEs. This includes both the construction of the characteristic variables for use in our penalty boundary communication scheme, as well as radiation controlling, constraint preserving outer boundary conditions which, for the first time in a numerical context, are shown to be boundary-stable. After choosing a formulation of the Maxwell constraints that we may solve for initial data, we move on to show a suite of numerical tests. Our simulations, both within the Cowling approximation, and in full non-linear evolution, demonstrate rapid convergence of error with resolution, as well as consistency with known quasinormal decay rates on the Kerr background. Finally we evolve the electrovacuum equations of motion with strong data, a good representation of typical critical collapse runs.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

An asymptotic systems approach for the good-bad-ugly model with application to general relativity

We employ an adapted version of H\"ormander's asymptotic systems method to show heuristically that the standard good-bad-ugly model admits formal polyhomogeneous asymptotic solutions near null infinity. In a related earlier approach, our heuristics were unable to capture potential leading order logarithmic terms appearing in the asymptotic solution of the good equation (the standard wave equation). Presently, we work with an improved method which overcomes this shortcoming, allowing the faithful treatment of a larger class of initial data in which such logarithmic terms are manifest. We then generalize this method to encompass models that include stratified null forms as sources and whose wave operators are built from an asymptotically flat metric. We then apply this result to the Einstein field equations in generalized harmonic gauge and compute the leading decay in~$R^{-1}$ of the Weyl scalars, where~$R$ is a suitably defined radial coordinate. We detect an obstruction to peeling, a decay statement on the Weyl scalars~$\Psi_n$ that is ensured by smoothness of null infinity. The leading order obstruction appears in~$\Psi_2$ and, in agreement with the literature, can only be suppressed by a careful choice of initial

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Hyperbolic extensions of constrained PDEs

Systems of PDEs comprised of a combination of constraints and evolution equations are ubiquitous in physics. For both theoretical and practical reasons, such as numerical integration, it is desirable to have a systematic understanding of the well-posedness of the Cauchy problem for these systems. Presently we review the use of hyperbolic reductions, in which the evolution equations are singled out for consideration. We then examine in greater detail the extensions, in which constraints are evolved as auxiliary variables alongside the original variables. Assuming a particular structure of the original system, we give sufficient conditions for strong-hyperbolicity of an extension. This theory is then applied to the examples of electromagnetism and a toy for magnetohydrodynamics.

math.AP↗

arXiv2024

Spherical Evolution of the Generalized Harmonic Gauge Formulation of General Relativity on Compactified Hyperboloidal Slices

We report on the successful numerical evolution of the compactified hyperboloidal initial value problem in general relativity using generalized harmonic gauge. We work in spherical symmetry, using a massless scalar field to drive dynamics. Our treatment is based on the dual-foliation approach, proceeding either by using a height function or by solving the eikonal equation to map between frames. Both are tested here with a naive implementation and with hyperboloidal layers. We present a broad suite of numerical evolutions, including pure gauge perturbations, constraint violating and satisfying data with and without scalar field matter. We present calculations of spacetimes with a regular center. For black hole spacetimes we use excision to remove part of the black hole interior. We demonstrate both pointwise and norm convergence at the expected rate of our discretization. We present evolutions in which the scalar field collapses to form a black hole. Evolving nonlinear scalar field perturbations of the Schwarzschild spacetime, we recover the expected quasinormal frequencies and tail decay rates from linear theory.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Solving the Einstein Equations Numerically

There are many complementary approaches to the construction of solutions to the field equations of general relativity. Among these, numerical approximation offers the only possibility to compute a variety of dynamical spacetimes, and so has come to play an important role for theory and experiment alike. Presently we give a brief introduction to this, the science of numerical relativity. We discuss the freedom in formulating general relativity as an initial (boundary) value problem. We touch on the fundamental concepts of well-posedness and gauge freedom and review the standard computational methods employed in the field. We discuss the physical interpretation of numerical spacetime data and end with an overview of a number of 3d codes that are either in use or under active development.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Simulations of gravitational collapse in null coordinates: II. Critical collapse of an axisymmetric scalar field

We present the first numerical simulations in null coordinates of the collapse of nonspherical regular initial data to a black hole. We restrict to twist-free axisymmetry, and re-investigate the critical collapse of a non-spherical massless scalar field. We find that the Choptuik solution governing scalar field critical collapse in spherical symmetry persists when fine-tuning moderately non-spherical initial data to the threshold of black hole formation. The non-sphericity evolves as an almost-linear perturbation until the end of the self-similar phase, and becomes dominant only in the final collapse to a black hole. We compare with numerical results of Choptuik et al, Baumgarte, and Marouda et al, and conclude that they have been able to evolve somewhat more non-spherical solutions. Future work with larger deviations from spherical symmetry, and in particular vacuum collapse, will require a different choice of radial coordinate that allows the null generators to reconverge locally.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Simulations of gravitational collapse in null coordinates: I. Formulation and weak-field tests in generalised Bondi gauges

We present a code for numerical simulations of the collapse of regular initial data to a black hole in null coordinates. We restrict to twist-free axisymmetry with scalar field matter. Our coordinates are $(u,x,y,\varphi)$, where the retarded time $u$ labels outgoing null cones emerging from a regular central worldline, the angles $(\theta,\varphi)$ label the null generators of each null cone, and the radial coordinate $x$ labels points along these generators. We focus on a class of generalised Bondi radial coordinates $x$ with the twin properties that $x=0$ is the central world line and that the numerical domain $(u\ge0$, $0\le x\le x_\text{max})$ is a subset of the domain of dependence of the initial data on $(u=0$, $0\le x\le x_\text{max}$). In critical collapse, an appropriate choice of these coordinates can be made to zoom in on the accumulation point of scale echos of the critical solution, without the need for explicit mesh refinement. We introduce a novel numerical scheme that in effect reduces the angular resolution at small radius, such that the time step $\Delta u$ for an explicit numerical scheme is limited by the radial resolution $\Delta x$, rather than $\Delta x(\Delta\theta)^2$. We present convergence tests in the weak-field regime, where we have exact solutions to the linearised scalar and gravitational-wave equations.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Twist-free axisymmetric critical collapse of a complex scalar field

Critical phenomena in gravitational collapse are characterized by the emergence of surprising structure in solution space, namely the appearance of universal power-laws and periodicities near the threshold of collapse, and a universal discretely self-similar solution at the threshold itself. The seminal work of M. Choptuik spurred a comprehensive investigation of extreme spherical spacetimes in numerical relativity, with analogous results for numerous matter models. Recent research suggests that the generalization to less symmetric scenarios is subtle. In twist-free axisymmetric vacuum collapse for instance, numerical evidence suggests a breakdown of universality of solutions at the threshold of collapse. In this study, we explore gravitational collapse involving a massless complex scalar field minimally coupled to general relativity. We employ the pseudospectral code BAMPS to investigate a neighborhood of the spherically symmetric critical solution in phase space, focusing on aspherical departures from it. First, working in explicit spherical symmetry, we find strong evidence that the spacetime metric of the spherical critical solution of the complex scalar field agrees with that of the Choptuik solution. We then examine universality of the behavior of solutions near the threshold of collapse as the departure from spherical symmetry increases, comparing with recent investigations of the real scalar field. We present a series of well-tuned numerical results and document shifts of the power-law exponent and periods as a function of the degree of asphericity of the initial data. At sufficiently high asphericities we find that the center of collapse bifurcates, on the symmetry axis, but away from the origin. Finally we look for and evaluate evidence that in the highly aspherical setting the collapse is driven by gravitational waves.

gr-qc↗