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Symbolic and numerical analysis in general relativity with open source computer algebra systems

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Abstract

We study three computer algebra systems, namely SageMath (with SageManifolds package), Maxima (with ctensor package) and Python language (with GraviPy module), which allow tensor manipulation for general relativity calculations along with general algebraic calculations. We present a benchmark of these systems using simple examples. After the general analysis, we focus on the SageMath and SageManifolds system to derive, analyze and visualize the solutions of the massless Klein–Gordon equation and geodesic motion with Hamilton–Jacobi formalism. We compare our numerical result of the Klein–Gordon equation with the asymptotic form of the analytical solution to see that they agree.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Profs. Neşe Özdemir, Durmuş Ali Demir and Éric Gourgoulhon for stimulating discussions. We also thank our anonymous referee for the constructive comments which helped us to improve the manuscript. This work is partially supported by TÜBİTAK, the Scientific and Technological Council of Turkey.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Tolga Birkandan, Ceren Güzelgün & Elif Şirin

  2. Institute of informatics, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Mustafa Can Uslu

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  1. Tolga Birkandan
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  2. Ceren Güzelgün
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  3. Elif Şirin
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  4. Mustafa Can Uslu
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Correspondence to Tolga Birkandan.

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Birkandan, T., Güzelgün, C., Şirin, E. et al. Symbolic and numerical analysis in general relativity with open source computer algebra systems. Gen Relativ Gravit 51, 4 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-018-2486-x

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