Abstract
When one splits spacetime into space plus time, the spacetime curvature (Weyl tensor) gets split into an “electric” part that describes tidal gravity and a “magnetic” part that describes differential dragging of inertial frames. We introduce tools for visualizing (frame-drag vortex lines, their vorticity, and vortexes) and (tidal tendex lines, their tendicity, and tendexes) and also visualizations of a black-hole horizon’s (scalar) vorticity and tendicity. We use these tools to elucidate the nonlinear dynamics of curved spacetime in merging black-hole binaries.
- Received 21 December 2010
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.151101
© 2011 American Physical Society