2,691 research outputs found
Numerical Solution of the Expanding Stellar Atmosphere Problem
In this paper we discuss numerical methods and algorithms for the solution of
NLTE stellar atmosphere problems involving expanding atmospheres, e.g., found
in novae, supernovae and stellar winds. We show how a scheme of nested
iterations can be used to reduce the high dimension of the problem to a number
of problems with smaller dimensions. As examples of these sub-problems, we
discuss the numerical solution of the radiative transfer equation for
relativistically expanding media with spherical symmetry, the solution of the
multi-level non-LTE statistical equilibrium problem for extremely large model
atoms, and our temperature correction procedure. Although modern iteration
schemes are very efficient, parallel algorithms are essential in making large
scale calculations feasible, therefore we discuss some parallelization schemes
that we have developed.Comment: JCAM, in press. 28 pages, also available at
ftp://calvin.physast.uga.edu:/pub/preprints/CompAstro.ps.g
Modeling UV Radiation Feedback from Massive Stars: I. Implementation of Adaptive Ray Tracing Method and Tests
We present an implementation of an adaptive ray tracing (ART) module in the
Athena hydrodynamics code that accurately and efficiently handles the radiative
transfer involving multiple point sources on a three-dimensional Cartesian
grid. We adopt a recently proposed parallel algorithm that uses non-blocking,
asynchronous MPI communications to accelerate transport of rays across the
computational domain. We validate our implementation through several standard
test problems including the propagation of radiation in vacuum and the
expansions of various types of HII regions. Additionally, scaling tests show
that the cost of a full ray trace per source remains comparable to that of the
hydrodynamics update on up to processors. To demonstrate
application of our ART implementation, we perform a simulation of star cluster
formation in a marginally bound, turbulent cloud, finding that its star
formation efficiency is when both radiation pressure forces and
photoionization by UV radiation are treated. We directly compare the radiation
forces computed from the ART scheme with that from the M1 closure relation.
Although the ART and M1 schemes yield similar results on large scales, the
latter is unable to resolve the radiation field accurately near individual
point sources.Comment: 20 pages, 14 figures; accepted for publication in Ap
The stellar atmosphere simulation code Bifrost
Context: Numerical simulations of stellar convection and photospheres have
been developed to the point where detailed shapes of observed spectral lines
can be explained. Stellar atmospheres are very complex, and very different
physical regimes are present in the convection zone, photosphere, chromosphere,
transition region and corona. To understand the details of the atmosphere it is
necessary to simulate the whole atmosphere since the different layers interact
strongly. These physical regimes are very diverse and it takes a highly
efficient massively parallel numerical code to solve the associated equations.
Aims: The design, implementation and validation of the massively parallel
numerical code Bifrost for simulating stellar atmospheres from the convection
zone to the corona.
Methods: The code is subjected to a number of validation tests, among them
the Sod shock tube test, the Orzag-Tang colliding shock test, boundary
condition tests and tests of how the code treats magnetic field advection,
chromospheric radiation, radiative transfer in an isothermal scattering
atmosphere, hydrogen ionization and thermal conduction.
Results: Bifrost completes the tests with good results and shows near linear
efficiency scaling to thousands of computing cores
Fast and accurate frequency-dependent radiation transport for hydrodynamics simulations in massive star formation
Context: Radiative feedback plays a crucial role in the formation of massive
stars. The implementation of a fast and accurate description of the proceeding
thermodynamics in pre-stellar cores and evolving accretion disks is therefore a
main effort in current hydrodynamics simulations.
Aims: We introduce our newly implemented three-dimensional frequency
dependent radiation transport algorithm for hydrodynamics simulations of
spatial configurations with a dominant central source.
Methods: The module combines the advantage of the speed of an approximate
Flux Limited Diffusion (FLD) solver with the high accuracy of a frequency
dependent first order ray-tracing routine.
Results: We prove the viability of the scheme in a standard radiation
benchmark test compared to a full frequency dependent Monte-Carlo based
radiative transfer code. The setup includes a central star, a circumstellar
flared disk, as well as an envelope. The test is performed for different
optical depths. Considering the frequency dependence of the stellar
irradiation, the temperature distributions can be described precisely in the
optically thin, thick, and irradiated transition regions. Resulting radiative
forces onto dust grains are reproduced with high accuracy. The achievable
parallel speedup of the method imposes no restriction on further radiative
(magneto-) hydrodynamics simulations.
Conclusions: The proposed approximate radiation transport method enables
frequency dependent radiation hydrodynamics studies of the evolution of
pre-stellar cores and circumstellar accretion disks around an evolving massive
star in a highly efficient and accurate manner.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figure
Two-dimensional, Time-dependent, Multi-group, Multi-angle Radiation Hydrodynamics Test Simulation in the Core-Collapse Supernova Context
We have developed a time-dependent, multi-energy-group, and multi-angle
(S) Boltzmann transport scheme for radiation hydrodynamics simulations, in
one and two spatial dimensions. The implicit transport is coupled to both 1D
(spherically-symmetric) and 2D (axially-symmetric) versions of the explicit
Newtonian hydrodynamics code VULCAN. The 2D variant, VULCAN/2D, can be operated
in general structured or unstructured grids and though the code can address
many problems in astrophysics it was constructed specifically to study the
core-collapse supernova problem. Furthermore, VULCAN/2D can simulate the
radiation/hydrodynamic evolution of differentially rotating bodies. We
summarize the equations solved and methods incorporated into the algorithm and
present results of a time-dependent 2D test calculation. A more complete
description of the algorithm is postponed to another paper. We highlight a 2D
test run that follows for 22 milliseconds the immediate post-bounce evolution
of a collapsed core. We present the relationship between the anisotropies of
the overturning matter field and the distribution of the corresponding flux
vectors, as a function of energy group. This is the first 2D multi-group,
multi-angle, time-dependent radiation/hydro calculation ever performed in core
collapse studies. Though the transport module of the code is not gray and does
not use flux limiters (however, there is a flux-limited variant of VULCAN/2D),
it still does not include energy redistribution and most velocity-dependent
terms.Comment: 19 pages, plus 13 figures in JPEG format. Submitted to the
Astrophysical Journa
Radiative transfer with scattering for domain-decomposed 3D MHD simulations of cool stellar atmospheres
We present the implementation of a radiative transfer solver with coherent
scattering in the new BIFROST code for radiative magneto-hydrodynamical (MHD)
simulations of stellar surface convection. The code is fully parallelized using
MPI domain decomposition, which allows for large grid sizes and improved
resolution of hydrodynamical structures. We apply the code to simulate the
surface granulation in a solar-type star, ignoring magnetic fields, and
investigate the importance of coherent scattering for the atmospheric
structure. A scattering term is added to the radiative transfer equation,
requiring an iterative computation of the radiation field. We use a
short-characteristics-based Gauss-Seidel acceleration scheme to compute
radiative flux divergences for the energy equation. The effects of coherent
scattering are tested by comparing the temperature stratification of three 3D
time-dependent hydrodynamical atmosphere models of a solar-type star: without
scattering, with continuum scattering only, and with both continuum and line
scattering. We show that continuum scattering does not have a significant
impact on the photospheric temperature structure for a star like the Sun.
Including scattering in line-blanketing, however, leads to a decrease of
temperatures by about 350\,K below log tau < -4. The effect is opposite to that
of 1D hydrostatic models in radiative equilibrium, where scattering reduces the
cooling effect of strong LTE lines in the higher layers of the photosphere.
Coherent line scattering also changes the temperature distribution in the high
atmosphere, where we observe stronger fluctuations compared to a treatment of
lines as true absorbers.Comment: A&A, in pres
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