We set up in detail the general formalism to model polytropic general relativistic stars with anisotropic pressure. We shall consider two different possible polytropic equations, all of which yield the same Lane-Emden equation in the Newtonian limit. A heuristic model based on an ansatz to obtain anisotropic matter solutions from known solutions for isotropic matter is adopted to illustrate the effects of the pressure anisotropy on the structure of the star. In this context, the Tolman mass, which is a measure of the active gravitational mass, is invoked to explain some features of the models. Prospective extensions of the proposed approach are pointed out.

We analyze in detail conformally flat spherically symmetric fluid distributions, satisfying a polytropic equation of state. Among the two possible families of relativistic polytropes, only one contains models which satisfy all the required physical conditions. The ensuing configurations are necessarily anisotropic and show interesting physical properties. Prospective applications of the presented models to the study of super-Chandrasekhar white dwarfs, are discussed.Comment: 9 pages Revtex-4, 6 figures. To appear in Gen. Rel. Grav. Some typos correcte

We set up the general formalism to model polytropic Newtonian stars with anisotropic pressure. We obtain the corresponding Lane-Emden equation. A heuristic model based on an ansatz to obtain anisotropic matter solutions from known solutions for isotropic matter is adopted to illustrate the effects of the pressure anisotropy on the structure of the star. In particular, we calculate the Chandrasekhar mass for a white dwarf. It is clearly displayed how the Chandrasekhar mass limit changes depending on the anisotropy. Prospective astrophysical applications of the proposed approach are discussed.

A general, iterative, method for the description of evolving self-gravitating relativistic spheres is presented. Modeling is achieved by the introduction of an ansatz, whose rationale becomes intelligible and finds full justification within the context of a suitable definition of the post-quasistatic approximation. As examples of application of the method we discuss three models, in the adiabatic case.

We calculate the vorticity of world-lines of observers at rest in a Bondi-Sachs frame, produced by gravitational radiation, in a general Sachs metric. We claim that such an effect is related to the super-Poynting vector, in a similar way as the existence of the electromagnetic Poynting vector is related to the vorticity in stationary electrovacum spacetimes.

We present a new computational framework (LEO), that enables us to carry out the very first large-scale, high-resolution computations in the context of the characteristic approach in numerical relativity. At the analytic level, our approach is based on a new implementation of the "eth" formalism, using a non-standard representation of the spin-raising and lowering angular operators in terms of non-conformal coordinates on the sphere; we couple this formalism to a partially firstorder reduction (in the angular variables) of the Einstein equations. The numerical implementation of our approach supplies the basic building blocks for a highly parallel, easily extensible numerical code. We demonstrate the adaptability and excellent scaling of our numerical code by solving, within our numerical framework, for a scalar field minimally coupled to gravity (the Einstein-KleinGordon problem) in the 3-dimensions. The nonlinear code is globally second-order convergent, and has been extensively tested using as reference a calibrated code with the same boundary-initial data and radial marching algorithm. In this context, we show how accurately we can follow quasi-normal mode ringing. In the linear regime, we show energy conservation for a number of initial data sets with varying angular structure. A striking result that arises in this context is the saturation of the flow of energy through the Schwarzschild radius. As a final calibration check we perform a large simulation with resolution never achieved before.

Considering charged fluid spheres as anisotropic sources and the diffusion limit as the transport mechanism, we suppose that the inner spacetime admits self-similarity. Matching the interior solution with the ReissnerNordström-Vaidya exterior one, we find an extremely compact and oscillatory final state with a redistribution of the electric charge function and non zero pressure profiles.

We present a numerical model of a collapsing radiating sphere, whose boundary surface undergoes bouncing due to a decreasing of its inertial mass density (and, as expected from the equivalence principle, also of the "gravitational" force term) produced by the "inertial" term of the transport equation. This model exhibits for the first time the consequences of such an effect, and shows that under physically reasonable conditions this decreasing of the gravitational term in the dynamic equation may be large enough as to revert the collapse and produce a bouncing of the boundary surface of the sphere.