[seqfan] Re: Black holes

[bradklee at gmail.com]

Hi Charles,

I wouldn't worry too much unless someone complains.

While we are on the subject:

I was talking to Kennefick recently about William Burke, and he told me that Burke's dissertation on "matched asymptotic expansions" was among the best work of the time, helped to improve our ability to calculate observable quantities.

I'm sure you've heard the recent news that--in certain fortunate cases where two extremely massive black holes spiral into one another--gravitational quadrupole radiation is directly observable as a tiny change in the optical path length of a Michelson Interferometer.

Considering all of this, I started to wonder: do we have any content on "matched asymptotic expansions"? If not, what is a good place to start?

It sounds like a topic that would produce lots of coefficients, and interesting expansions.

Thanks,

Brad

> On Feb 21, 2016, at 3:58 PM, Charles Greathouse <charles.greathouse at case.edu> wrote:
> 
> I added two sequences (decimal expansions of constants) which are related
> to rotating/Kerr black holes:
> http://oeis.org/A268682
> http://oeis.org/A268683
> 
> Unfortunately, I have no relevant background. If anyone has physics
> expertise (even if not astrophysics/thermodynamics) I'd appreciate a glance
> at these two to see if I've adequately explained the concepts. (I have
> references to a standard (?) text from my uni's astronomy department and an
> online overview, so I understand the material at least locally. Perhaps
> other references would be useful.)
> 
> When I read about some nondimensional constant/probability/etc. in a
> science book -- almost invariably rounded to a small number of decimal
> places, 0 or 1 being most common -- I usually wonder where it comes from.
> If it turns out to have a reasonable mathematical form I try to add it to
> the OEIS. Other sequence with similar origins are A201488, A211074,
> A214395, A219863, A230242, A242978, A245461, and A245494.
> 
> Charles Greathouse
> Analyst/Programmer
> Case Western Reserve University
> 
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