Modeling Collisionless Matter in General Relativity: A New Numerical Technique

Abstract

We propose a new numerical technique for following the evolution of a self-gravitating collisionless system in general relativity. Matter is modeled as a scalar field obeying the coupled Klein-Gordon and Einstein equations. A phase space distribution function, constructed using covariant coherent states, obeys the relativistic Vlasov equation provided the de Broglie wavelength for the field is very much smaller than the scales of interest. We illustrate the method by solving for the evolution of a system of particles in a static, plane-symmetric, background spacetime.