Caltech/JPL Association for Gravitational-Wave Research Seminar

A new method for visualizing curved spacetimes has recently been developed and applied to numerical and analytic spacetimes. The method uses field lines, in direct analogy to electric and magnetic field lines, to visualize tidal and frame-drag effects of curvature. We call these field lines tendex and vortex lines. I will give an introduction to these methods, and I will discuss what we have discovered by their use. I will also discuss future applications of these methods, especially to numerical simulations and gravitational wave science.