1,069,800 research outputs found
The Nature of the Warm/Hot Intergalactic Medium I. Numerical Methods, Convergence, and OVI Absorption
We perform a series of cosmological simulations using Enzo, an Eulerian
adaptive-mesh refinement, N-body + hydrodynamical code, applied to study the
warm/hot intergalactic medium. The WHIM may be an important component of the
baryons missing observationally at low redshift. We investigate the dependence
of the global star formation rate and mass fraction in various baryonic phases
on spatial resolution and methods of incorporating stellar feedback. Although
both resolution and feedback significantly affect the total mass in the WHIM,
all of our simulations find that the WHIM fraction peaks at z ~ 0.5, declining
to 35-40% at z = 0. We construct samples of synthetic OVI absorption lines from
our highest-resolution simulations, using several models of oxygen ionization
balance. Models that include both collisional ionization and photoionization
provide excellent fits to the observed number density of absorbers per unit
redshift over the full range of column densities (10^13 cm-2 <= N_OVI <= 10^15
cm^-2). Models that include only collisional ionization provide better fits for
high column density absorbers (N_OVI > 10^14 cm^-2). The distribution of OVI in
density and temperature exhibits two populations: one at T ~ 10^5.5 K
(collisionally ionized, 55% of total OVI) and one at T ~ 10^4.5 K
(photoionized, 37%) with the remainder located in dense gas near galaxies.
While not a perfect tracer of hot gas, OVI provides an important tool for a
WHIM baryon census.Comment: 22 pages, 21 figures, emulateapj, accepted for publication in Ap
Implicit-Explicit multistep methods for hyperbolic systems with multiscale relaxation
We consider the development of high order space and time numerical methods
based on Implicit-Explicit (IMEX) multistep time integrators for hyperbolic
systems with relaxation. More specifically, we consider hyperbolic balance laws
in which the convection and the source term may have very different time and
space scales. As a consequence the nature of the asymptotic limit changes
completely, passing from a hyperbolic to a parabolic system. From the
computational point of view, standard numerical methods designed for the
fluid-dynamic scaling of hyperbolic systems with relaxation present several
drawbacks and typically lose efficiency in describing the parabolic limit
regime. In this work, in the context of Implicit-Explicit linear multistep
methods we construct high order space-time discretizations which are able to
handle all the different scales and to capture the correct asymptotic behavior,
independently from its nature, without time step restrictions imposed by the
fast scales. Several numerical examples confirm the theoretical analysis
Non-iterative and exact method for constraining particles in a linear geometry
We present a practical numerical method for evaluating the Lagrange
multipliers necessary for maintaining a constrained linear geometry of
particles in dynamical simulations. The method involves no iterations, and is
limited in accuracy only by the numerical methods for solving small systems of
linear equations. As a result of the non-iterative and exact (within numerical
accuracy) nature of the procedure there is no drift in the constrained
geometry, and the method is therefore readily applied to molecular dynamics
simulations of, e.g., rigid linear molecules or materials of non-spherical
grains. We illustrate the approach through implementation in the commonly used
second-order velocity explicit Verlet method.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure
Numerical Descriptions of Cosmic-Ray Transport
The behavior of energetic particles in the solar system is described by a well known Fokker-Planck equation. Although analytic methods yield insight into the nature of its solutions, especially in the diffusion regime, calculations that go beyond diffusion are very complicated. The reliability of these calculations is of concern, because numerical methods are notorious for their errors and artifacts. The well known Milne problem of classical transport theory was analyzed with the aid of three different numerical methods. These are: (1) The method of eigenfunctions in which the distribution function is approximated by a sum of eigenfunctions of the scattering operator, (2) Numerical solutions of a finite difference aquation; and (3) Direct simulation of the scattering and streaming of individual particles with the aid of Monte Carlo methods
Hydrodynamics of dense granular systems
The properties of dense granular systems are analyzed from a hydrodynamical
point of view, based on conservation laws for the particle number density and
linear momentum. We discuss averaging problems associated with the nature of
such systems and the peculiarities of the sources of noise. We perform a
quantitative study by combining analytical methods and numerical results
obtained by ensemble-averaging of data on creep during compaction and molecular
dynamics simulations of convective flow. We show that numerical integration of
the hydrodynamic equations gives the expected evolution for the time-dependent
fields.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure
25 Years of Self-Organized Criticality: Numerical Detection Methods
The detection and characterization of self-organized criticality (SOC), in
both real and simulated data, has undergone many significant revisions over the
past 25 years. The explosive advances in the many numerical methods available
for detecting, discriminating, and ultimately testing, SOC have played a
critical role in developing our understanding of how systems experience and
exhibit SOC. In this article, methods of detecting SOC are reviewed; from
correlations to complexity to critical quantities. A description of the basic
autocorrelation method leads into a detailed analysis of application-oriented
methods developed in the last 25 years. In the second half of this manuscript
space-based, time-based and spatial-temporal methods are reviewed and the
prevalence of power laws in nature is described, with an emphasis on event
detection and characterization. The search for numerical methods to clearly and
unambiguously detect SOC in data often leads us outside the comfort zone of our
own disciplines - the answers to these questions are often obtained by studying
the advances made in other fields of study. In addition, numerical detection
methods often provide the optimum link between simulations and experiments in
scientific research. We seek to explore this boundary where the rubber meets
the road, to review this expanding field of research of numerical detection of
SOC systems over the past 25 years, and to iterate forwards so as to provide
some foresight and guidance into developing breakthroughs in this subject over
the next quarter of a century.Comment: Space Science Review series on SO
An Axisymmetric Gravitational Collapse Code
We present a new numerical code designed to solve the Einstein field
equations for axisymmetric spacetimes. The long term goal of this project is to
construct a code that will be capable of studying many problems of interest in
axisymmetry, including gravitational collapse, critical phenomena,
investigations of cosmic censorship, and head-on black hole collisions. Our
objective here is to detail the (2+1)+1 formalism we use to arrive at the
corresponding system of equations and the numerical methods we use to solve
them. We are able to obtain stable evolution, despite the singular nature of
the coordinate system on the axis, by enforcing appropriate regularity
conditions on all variables and by adding numerical dissipation to hyperbolic
equations.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figure
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