Gravitational waves provide a window on the universe of astronomical phenomena that is different from any in the electromagnetic spectrum. Mass in many different varieties of motion is a source of propagating ripples in spacetime curvature. In order to interpret the observations of gravitational wave detectors on Earth and in space, it is necessary to solve the Einstein equation for the gravitational radiation produced by given sources. Predicting the gravitational radiation from strong-curvature, rapidly varying sources is a problem generally tractable only by numerical simulation of the fully nonlinear Einstein equation – a subject well beyond the scope of this book. However, some insight into the production of gravitational waves can be obtained from examining the more tractable problem of the small ripples in spacetime emitted by weak, nonrelativistic sources.
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