Physics Colloquium

The recent discovery of gravitational waves by Advanced LIGO ushered in a new kind of astronomy, one potentially integrating its findings with those obtained from electromagnetic and/or neutrino observations. Multi-messenger astronomy promises to revolutionize our understanding of the universe by providing dramatically contrasting views of the same objects. To understand this unprecedented wealth of observational evidence, computer intensive theoretical calculations of the Einstein field equations, coupled with the equations of magneto-hydrodynamics, are required in order to link data with underlying physics. In this talk, I will provide a review on the recent progress in this exciting field of computational astrophysics. With Advanced LIGO now fully operational and the detection of additional gravitational wave events imminent, we expect that there will be a surge in the number of researchers interested in performing simulations of compact binary mergers.