This award supports a three-year collaborative research project between Professor Jeffrey H. Winicour, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, and Professor Nigel T. Bishop, Department of Mathematics and Astronomy, University of South Africa (UNISA), Pretoria. In addition, a junior investigator from the University of Durban-Westville, a historically disadvantaged institution in South Africa, will participate in the project, as well as a graduate student from the University of Pittsburgh. The investigators will collaborate on research relevant to the Binary Black Hole `Grand Challenge,` whose objective is to calculate the gravitational radiation that is emitted during the in-spiral and coalescence of two black holes. The problem can be divided into two parts: (a) the strong-field region near the black holes, and (b) the outer region extending to infinity. The work to be undertaken concerns part (b), as well as the interface between parts (a) and (b). The proposed collaboration combines expertise in numerical computing and access to supercomputers in the United States, while the South African side offers special expertise in algebraic computing. The international collaboration will also give new research opportunities to young researchers in both countries.
