The article on black hole mergers by Thomas Baumgarte and Stuart Shapiro (PHYSICS TODAY, October 2011, page 32) was extremely well written and informative. I especially appreciated the use of Maxwell’s equations as a mechanism for explaining the concepts, and I much enjoyed carrying out the exercise suggested in box 2. However, it occurred to me that something is missing in connection with the final result as given in equation 2c. Although it is clearly a wave equation and therefore any constraint violations may indeed “propagate away,” as the authors suggest, it is also clear that the equation will accept a constant solution or even an exponentially growing one. What remains unclear is why the “propagate away” option is the one that should take precedence in actual calculations.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
June 01 2012
Boundary conditions and Maxwell’s equations
Jean C. Piquette
Jean C. Piquette
(jpiquette@verizon.net) Portsmouth, Rhode Island
Search for other works by this author on:
Physics Today 65 (6), 10–12 (2012);
Citation
Jean C. Piquette; Boundary conditions and Maxwell’s equations. Physics Today 1 June 2012; 65 (6): 10–12. https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.1577
Download citation file:
546
Views
Citing articles via
Small lakes could destabilize Earth’s ice sheets
Kristin Poinar
Fanning flames
Alex Lopatka
Benjamin Breneman Snavely
H. Frederick Dylla; Louis J. Lanzerotti; Kevin B. Marvel; G. Wayne Van Citters
Related Content
Boundary conditions and Maxwell’s equations
Physics Today (June 2012)
Binary black hole mergers
Physics Today (October 2011)
Electromagnetic waves
Physics Today (July 1960)
Correction
Physics Today (December 1982)
Gravitational Radiation and the Validity of General Relativity
Physics Today (October 1999)