A neutron star merger is a highly dynamical system in which the four fundamental forces of nature—electromagnetic, weak, strong, and gravitational—play significant roles. This makes it an intriguing laboratory for studying fundamental physics, which can be explored experimentally through both gravitational and electromagnetic waves. To model this system, instead of solving quantum chromodynamics, one replaces this by a much simpler description based on fluid dynamics. This motivates the study of relativistic hydrodynamics, which is also useful for the description of the quark-gluon plasma or cosmological scenarios.
The project consists in studying basic aspects of relativistic hydrodynamics and obtaining solutions in simple set ups. We can potentially include viscous effects, which are required to improve the state of the art simulations of neutron star mergers. This could lead to the publication of a research paper.