dc.contributor.advisor | Hughes, Scott A. | |
dc.contributor.author | Leonard, Aidan J. | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2025-07-07T17:39:41Z | |
dc.date.available | 2025-07-07T17:39:41Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2025-05 | |
dc.date.submitted | 2025-05-19T13:39:20.621Z | |
dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/159940 | |
dc.description.abstract | In 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.publisher | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | |
dc.rights | In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted | |
dc.rights | Copyright retained by author(s) | |
dc.rights.uri | https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/ | |
dc.title | Oppenheimer-Snyder Collapse in the BSSN Formalism | |
dc.type | Thesis | |
dc.description.degree | S.B. | |
dc.contributor.department | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics | |
mit.thesis.degree | Bachelor | |
thesis.degree.name | Bachelor of Science in Physics | |