Constraint-preserving Sommerfeld conditions for the harmonic Einstein equations

The principle part of Einstein equations in the harmonic gauge consists of a constrained system of 10 curved space wave equations for the components of the space-time metric. A new formulation of constraint-preserving boundary conditions of the Sommerfeld type for such systems has recently been proposed. We implement these boundary conditions in a nonlinear 3D evolution code and test their accuracy.Comment: 16 pages, 17 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

A Stable Finite Difference Method for the Elastic Wave Equation on Complex Geometries with Free Surfaces

A stable and explicit second order accurate finite difference method for the elastic wave equation in curvilinear coordinates is presented. The discretization of the spatial operators in the method is shown to be self-adjoint for free-surface, Dirichlet and periodic boundary conditions. The fully discrete version of the method conserves a discrete energy to machine precision

An adaptive Cartesian embedded boundary approach for fluid simulations of two- and three-dimensional low temperature plasma filaments in complex geometries

We review a scalable two- and three-dimensional computer code for low-temperature plasma simulations in multi-material complex geometries. Our approach is based on embedded boundary (EB) finite volume discretizations of the minimal fluid-plasma model on adaptive Cartesian grids, extended to also account for charging of insulating surfaces. We discuss the spatial and temporal discretization methods, and show that the resulting overall method is second order convergent, monotone, and conservative (for smooth solutions). Weak scalability with parallel efficiencies over 70\% are demonstrated up to 8192 cores and more than one billion cells. We then demonstrate the use of adaptive mesh refinement in multiple two- and three-dimensional simulation examples at modest cores counts. The examples include two-dimensional simulations of surface streamers along insulators with surface roughness; fully three-dimensional simulations of filaments in experimentally realizable pin-plane geometries, and three-dimensional simulations of positive plasma discharges in multi-material complex geometries. The largest computational example uses up to $800$ million mesh cells with billions of unknowns on $4096$ computing cores. Our use of computer-aided design (CAD) and constructive solid geometry (CSG) combined with capabilities for parallel computing offers possibilities for performing three-dimensional transient plasma-fluid simulations, also in multi-material complex geometries at moderate pressures and comparatively large scale.Comment: 40 pages, 21 figure

High-order numerical methods for 2D parabolic problems in single and composite domains

In this work, we discuss and compare three methods for the numerical approximation of constant- and variable-coefficient diffusion equations in both single and composite domains with possible discontinuity in the solution/flux at interfaces, considering (i) the Cut Finite Element Method; (ii) the Difference Potentials Method; and (iii) the summation-by-parts Finite Difference Method. First we give a brief introduction for each of the three methods. Next, we propose benchmark problems, and consider numerical tests-with respect to accuracy and convergence-for linear parabolic problems on a single domain, and continue with similar tests for linear parabolic problems on a composite domain (with the interface defined either explicitly or implicitly). Lastly, a comparative discussion of the methods and numerical results will be given.Comment: 45 pages, 12 figures, in revision for Journal of Scientific Computin

Modeling the Black Hole Excision Problem

We analyze the excision strategy for simulating black holes. The problem is modeled by the propagation of quasi-linear waves in a 1-dimensional spatial region with timelike outer boundary, spacelike inner boundary and a horizon in between. Proofs of well-posed evolution and boundary algorithms for a second differential order treatment of the system are given for the separate pieces underlying the finite difference problem. These are implemented in a numerical code which gives accurate long term simulations of the quasi-linear excision problem. Excitation of long wavelength exponential modes, which are latent in the problem, are suppressed using conservation laws for the discretized system. The techniques are designed to apply directly to recent codes for the Einstein equations based upon the harmonic formulation.Comment: 21 pages, 14 postscript figures, minor contents updat