Spectral Cauchy-characteristic extraction of the gravitational wave news function

Abstract: We present an improved spectral algorithm for Cauchy-characteristic extraction and characteristic evolution of gravitational waves in numerical relativity. The new algorithms improve spectral convergence both at the poles of the spherical-polar grid and at future null infinity, as well as increase the temporal resolution of the code. The key to the success of these algorithms is a new set of high-accuracy tests, which we present here. We demonstrate the accuracy of the code and compare with the existing PittNull implementation.