Chang Yu Wang
Monash University
Biography
Chang Yu Wang is a second-year undergraduate student studying a Science and Computer Science double degree at Monash University. He aims to complete an extended maths major and a data science specialisation, because he doesn’t enjoy actually doing experiments. Chang’s research combines his interest in astrophysics with his fascination of differential geometry and linear algebra, and how they can describe complex physical phenomena in some closed form. Outside of university, Chang has written programs to automate tedious tasks and enjoys campfires, orange and poppyseed cake, and musicals.
Gravitational Waves: A Mathematical Analysis
The goal of this project is to:
- Understand how, after gauge fixing, the linearised vacuum Einstein field equations reduce to a constant coefficient wave equation for a symmetric two-tensor that describes perturbations of the space-time metric
- Use Fourier analysis and other PDE techniques to analyse the class of solutions that describe gravitational waves
- To draw physical conclusions from this mathematical description.