A Scilab program for computing general-relativistic models of rotating neutron stars by implementing Hartle's perturbation method

We implement Hartle's perturbation method to the computation of relativistic rigidly rotating neutron star models. The program has been written in SCILAB ((C) INRIA-ENPC), a matrix-oriented high-level programming language. The numerical method is described in very detail and is applied to many models in slow or fast rotation. We show that, although the method is perturbative, it gives accurate results for all practical purposes and it should prove an efficient tool for computing rapidly rotating pulsars.