Computer Algebra Applications for Numerical Relativity

Numerical relativists rarely talk about computer algebra (CA) in public, and outsiders to the field even might get the impression that CA and numerical relativity (NR) indeed represent two antipodal uses of computers to study relativity theory. Quite the opposite is true. In this article we will try to outline some of the possible applications of computer algebra for NR, and very briefly present some of our recent work resulting in the creation of a suite of Mathematica scripts which we have found extremely useful and which are available on request. While one of our aims is to make practitioners of the field more aware of the opportunities, another is to help outsiders better understand the problems faced in NR. These are often analytical in nature and sometimes closer to mainstream mathematical relativity than expected: There is much more to NR than coding up, say, the ADM equations [1]: