A conformal approach to numerical calculations of asymptotically flat spacetimes

This thesis is concerned with the development and application of conformal techniques to numerical calculations of asymptotically flat spacetimes. The conformal compactification technique enables us to calculate spatially unbounded domains, thereby avoiding the introduction of an artificial timelike outer boundary. We construct in spherical symmetry an explicit scri-fixing gauge, i.e. a conformal and a coordinate gauge in which the spatial coordinate location of null infinity is independent of time so that no resolution loss in the physical part of the conformal extension appears. Going beyond spherical symmetry, we develop a method to include null infinity in the computational domain. With this method, hyperboloidal initial value problems for the Einstein equations can be solved in a scri-fixing general wave gauge. To study spatial infinity, we discuss the conformal Gauss gauge and the reduced general conformal field equations from a numerical point of view. This leads us to the first numerical calculation of the entire Schwarzschild-Kruskal solution including spatial, null and timelike infinity and the domain close to the singularity. After developing a three dimensional, frame based evolution code with smooth inner and outer boundaries we calculate a radiative axisymmetric vacuum solution in a neighbourhood of spatial infinity represented as a cylinder including a piece of null infinity. In this context, a certain component of the rescaled Weyl tensor representing the radiation field is calculated unambiguously with respect to an adapted tetrad at null infinity.