What software do people use for tensor manipulation in general relativity?

  • Thread starter Thread starter pervect
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Software Tensor
pervect
Staff Emeritus
Science Advisor
Homework Helper
Insights Author
Messages
10,410
Reaction score
1,588
What sort of software do people here like to use to mangle, errr I mean manipulate, Tensors in General Relativity?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
I use paper and pencil. :smile:

A while back, I heard that MathTensor is good (but expensive).

It seems lots of tensor software packages are used for calculating components. I'd be interested in one that helps me manipulates them abstractly (for example, calculations involving algebraic and differential identities satisfied by the Riemann and Weyl tensors).

You may have seen this list
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/RelWWW/software.html
 
Last edited by a moderator:
robphy said:
I use paper and pencil. :smile:

A while back, I heard that MathTensor is good (but expensive).

It seems lots of tensor software packages are used for calculating components. I'd be interested in one that helps me manipulates them abstractly (for example, calculations involving algebraic and differential identities satisfied by the Riemann and Weyl tensors).

You may have seen this list
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/RelWWW/software.html

I probably did read that list at one time - currently, I'm reasonably happy with Maple and GRTensorII, but I was wondering what other people here used.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Thread 'I don't see how a black hole's event horizon can be crossed'

OK, so this has bugged me for a while about the equivalence principle and the black hole information paradox. If black holes "evaporate" via Hawking radiation, then they cannot exist forever. So, from my external perspective, watching the person fall in, they slow down, freeze, and redshift to "nothing," but never cross the event horizon. Does the equivalence principle say my perspective is valid? If it does, is it possible that that person really never crossed the event horizon? The...
View full post »

Thread 'Synchronizing clocks in an inertial frame if light is anisotropic'

ASSUMPTIONS 1. Two identical clocks A and B in the same inertial frame are stationary relative to each other a fixed distance L apart. Time passes at the same rate for both. 2. Both clocks are able to send/receive light signals and to write/read the send/receive times into signals. 3. The speed of light is anisotropic. METHOD 1. At time t[A1] and time t[B1], clock A sends a light signal to clock B. The clock B time is unknown to A. 2. Clock B receives the signal from A at time t[B2] and...
View full post »

Thread 'Is the variation of the metric ##\delta g_{\mu\nu}## a tensor?'

From $$0 = \delta(g^{\alpha\mu}g_{\mu\nu}) = g^{\alpha\mu} \delta g_{\mu\nu} + g_{\mu\nu} \delta g^{\alpha\mu}$$ we have $$g^{\alpha\mu} \delta g_{\mu\nu} = -g_{\mu\nu} \delta g^{\alpha\mu} \,\, . $$ Multiply both sides by ##g_{\alpha\beta}## to get $$\delta g_{\beta\nu} = -g_{\alpha\beta} g_{\mu\nu} \delta g^{\alpha\mu} \qquad(*)$$ (This is Dirac's eq. (26.9) in "GTR".) On the other hand, the variation ##\delta g^{\alpha\mu} = \bar{g}^{\alpha\mu} - g^{\alpha\mu}## should be a tensor...
View full post »

Similar threads

I How to calculate basis vectors from metric tensor (as a matrix)?
Replies
6
Views
407
I How do Tensors "work" in relation to linear algebraic objects?
Replies
7
Views
270
I Numerical Relativity -- Software to solve the Einstein field equations?
Replies
2
Views
1K
A Ricci tensor for Fermi normal coordinates
Replies
1
Views
820
A Decomposing Rank-2 Tensors in Dirac's "General Theory of Relativity
Replies
5
Views
1K
A Tensors in null basis
Replies
9
Views
1K
A Deriving Essential Quantities from Metric Tensor for GR Calculations
Replies
20
Views
2K
A GW Binary Merger: Riemann Tensor in Source & TT-Gauge
Replies
4
Views
2K
I How to derive irreducible representations/tensors?
Replies
22
Views
3K
B Prove that metric tensor is covariant constant
Replies
11
Views
1K

Hot Threads

Recent Insights

Back
Top