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dc.contributor.advisorHughes, Scott A.
dc.contributor.authorLeonard, Aidan J.
dc.date.accessioned2025-07-07T17:39:41Z
dc.date.available2025-07-07T17:39:41Z
dc.date.issued2025-05
dc.date.submitted2025-05-19T13:39:20.621Z
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/159940
dc.description.abstractIn general relativity, problems with high degrees of symmetry often serve as illustrative simplifications of complicated scenarios. Oppenheimer-Snyder collapse, an exact solution for the gravitational collapse of a uniform, pressure-less ball of dust into a black hole, provides valuable insight into the collapse of realistic mass distributions such as stars. Early numerical relativity simulations demonstrated that a rotating ball of dust collapses into a Kerr black hole. In this thesis, we formulate the collapse of a slowly rotating dust-ball using the BSSN framework from numerical relativity, with the aim of reproducing this result in a simple manner. By perturbing the Oppenheimer-Snyder solution in isotropic coordinates, we find semi-analytic solutions to the constraint equations at linear order in angular momentum. In addition, we develop a Mathematica simulation code for modeling of spherical vacuum systems using the BSSN formalism. Diagnostics provide comparison of our results with theoretical predictions for the simplified case of a stationary black hole. Further work is required to introduce matter terms and move from spherical to axial symmetry.
dc.publisherMassachusetts Institute of Technology
dc.rightsIn Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
dc.rightsCopyright retained by author(s)
dc.rights.urihttps://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/
dc.titleOppenheimer-Snyder Collapse in the BSSN Formalism
dc.typeThesis
dc.description.degreeS.B.
dc.contributor.departmentMassachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
mit.thesis.degreeBachelor
thesis.degree.nameBachelor of Science in Physics


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