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Richard Matzner
Professor of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin
Director, Center for Relativity, The University of Texas at Austin
Pricipal Investigator, The Binary Hole Grand Challenge Project
Richard Matzner has a long-term interest in gravitation and in
astrophysics. His earliest use of computational simulations included
radiation spacetimes (e.g., radiation transport in supernovae) and
studies of radiation around black holes, of nucleosynthesis, and of the
pattern of anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background. His recent
work has returned to the study of gravitational radiation from
interacting black holes.
Astrophysical black holes are interesting because they are the strongest
possible sources of gravitational radiation, and detectors to search
for them (called LIGO and VIRGO) are under construction. The National
Science Foundation has recently funded a "Computational Grand Challenge"
for the theoretical study of black holes, involving investigators at
eight universities. This project will develop software structures and
tools and the computational science algorithms to evolve the black
holes from an initial data specification, through a sufficiently long
evolution to accurately extract waveform predictions at the outer
surface of the computational cube.
Other aspects of gravitation and astrophysics have held Matzner's
interest also. He has participated in a photographic observation of a
total solar eclipse and is currently involved in space-borne experiments
to measure relativistic effects. One such project is based on the
LAGEOS laser-ranged satellite and could measure a subtle ("frame
dragging") effect due to the rotation of the earth. Matzner also is on
the Theory Working Group for the European Space Agency-proposed
experiment called LISA, which is a space-borne interfrometric
gravitational wave detector.
Matzner has authored or coauthored more than 120 scientific articles and
has coauthored two books (he is an editor of one more, and of a series
of lecture-transparency conference proceedings). His previous
computational efforts have been dominated by algorithmic questions,
developing adequate models for physical effects. The Grand Challenge
project has brought with it a new interest in parallel computational
architecture, and the data structure, communications, and
informational databases to support very large-scale computing.
Directing and participating in a large collaborative project has brought
a number of management challenges as well.
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