Tidbit: Radio Waves Bouncing Off of an F-15

jet-simulation
A simulation of radio waves bouncing off of an F-15 fighter jet. Left: the fighter jet is constructed out of many tetrahedra, inside each of which lives many waves. Right: the electric field on the surface of the jet. (Source: Gottlieb and Hesthaven, Spectral Methods for Hyperbolic Problems)

I’m afraid I don’t have time to write very much this week. So instead, I leave you with a little hint of the sort of thing I’m thinking about. The above picture is from a paper I just read. It shows a simulation of radio waves bouncing off of an F-15 fighter jet. The simulation was effected by first building the jet out of many tiny pyramids linked together at the faces (shown on the left). Then, a set of five waves or so was allowed to exist inside each pyramid. When you take all of these waves together, you get the radio wave that’s hitting the jet (shown on the right).

I’m working on taking this technique and using it to simulate relativistic astrophysics, like black holes and supernovae.

I’ll have a lot more to say on this eventually, but for now back to work!