RCFTA Annual Report 1993
Next: Theoretical Astrophysics in Australia
Research Centre for Theoretical Astrophysics
A Commonwealth Special Research Center
The University of Sydney
Director: Professor D. B. Melrose
Annual Report 1993
Theoretical Astrophysics:-
the study of the
fundamental physical processes underlying astrophysical phenomena,
and analytic and numerical modelling of the behaviour of specific
astronomical sources and objects.
Image: The Optics of Curved Spacetime (see also §6.6)
These four images show how the appearance of distant galaxies
is modified by the gravitational effects of all the other galaxies
in the universe using four different laws of gravity.
At top left is the undistorted
view offered by no gravity (flat space);
top right corresponds to Einstein's
theory of General Relativity, which incorporates Newton's law;
bottom left
shows the effect of adding an extra power-law term (of index -0.7) on top of
the Newtonian potential, while at bottom right the extra term is a power-law
of index -0.1, but extending only to radii of three million light-years.
Galaxies are colour coded according to distance from us with the nearest
being blue, one billion light-years away, and the furthest being red
at ten billion light-years.
Contact Address
Research Centre for Theoretical Astrophysics
School of Physics
University of Sydney, NSW 2006
Australia
Phone: (02) 6922542
Fax: (02) 6602903
Email: rcfta@physics.su.oz.au
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Stephen Hardy / stephen@physics.usyd.edu.au