NUMERICAL-METHODS FOR SOLVING THE PLANAR VACUUM EINSTEIN EQUATIONS

We describe a numerical code developed as a tool to investigate fully nonlinear behavior in the one-dimensional vacuum Einstein equations in plane symmetry. We use the York splitting into free and constrained variables to solve the initial-value equations. These data are then propagated in time using a fully constrained evolution scheme. We carry out a perturbative treatment of the Einstein equations and use the results as test-bed calculations for the code.