Princeton University Gravity Group Astrophysics/Cosmology Seminar

Numerical relativity in a higher dimensional space-time is an essentially unexplored field, with tremendous potential to provide answers to some of the most fundamental questions in physics. Besides the study of black objects in higher dimensions and their stability properties, this field is also relevant for the problem of black hole formation and evaporation in particle accelerators and cosmic rays. Due to computational costs, full blown higher-dimensional numerical simulations are currently not possible, so we restrict ourselves to the study of systems with axial symmetry and use this symmetry to reduce the problem to an effective 3+1 problem, allowing the use of existing numerical codes. In this talk we will introduce our formulation of the equations and present some results of numerical simulations of a head-on collision in five space-time dimensions.