Speaker : S. Hopper

Title : Frequency domain techniques to analyzing unbound motion on Schwarzschild spacetime

Abstract : Numerically solving for the field sourced by unbound motion on a black hole background presents challenges distinct from those of bound motion. While time domain codes are largely "source agnostic" and adapt quite naturally to unbound motion, frequency domain techniques must be adjusted significantly. In particular, while the source and field are both decomposed as Fourier series when considering bound geodesic motion, unbound motion requires a Fourier transform, with a dense spectrum. More significantly, the frequency domain source terms are not confined to a finite range, which can lead to substantial technical challenges. I will present new methods to overcome these difficulties and consider the benefits (and drawbacks) of using frequency domain techniques to compute the self force for unbound sources.