I review the development of numerical evolution codes for general relativity based upon the characteristic initial value problem. Progress is traced from the early stage of 1D feasibility studies to 2D axisymmetric codes that accurately simulate the oscillations and gravitational collapse of relativistic stars and to current 3D codes that provide pieces of a binary black hole spacetime. A prime application of characteristic evolution is to compute waveforms via Cauchy-characteristic matching, which is also reviewed.

中文翻译：

---

特征演化与匹配。

我回顾了基于特征初值问题的广义相对论数值演化代码的发展。进展可追溯到从一维可行性研究的早期阶段到精确模拟相对论恒星的振荡和引力塌缩的二维轴对称代码，以及当前提供双黑洞时空碎片的3D代码。特征演化的一个主要应用是通过柯西特征匹配来计算波形，对此也进行了回顾。