136 research outputs found
An axis-free overset grid in spherical polar coordinates for simulating 3D self-gravitating flows
A type of overlapping grid in spherical coordinates called the Yin-Yang grid
is successfully implemented into a 3D version of the explicit Eulerian
grid-based code PROMETHEUS including self-gravity. The modified code
successfully passed several standard hydrodynamic tests producing results which
are in very good agreement with analytic solutions. Moreover, the solutions
obtained with the Yin-Yang grid exhibit no peculiar behaviour at the boundary
between the two grid patches. The code has also been successfully used to model
astrophysically relevant situations, namely equilibrium polytropes, a
Taylor-Sedov explosion, and Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities. According to our
results, the usage of the Yin-Yang grid greatly enhances the suitability and
efficiency of 3D explicit Eulerian codes based on spherical polar coordinates
for astrophysical flows.Comment: 15 pages, 17 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in A&
Development of high-order realizable finite-volume schemes for quadrature-based moment method
Kinetic equations containing terms for spatial transport, gravity, fluid drag and particle-particle collisions can be used to model dilute gas-particle flows. However, the enormity of independent variables makes direct numerical simulation of these equations almost impossible for practical problems. A viable alternative is to reformulate the problem in terms of moments of velocity distribution. Recently, a quadrature-based moment method was derived by Fox for approximating solutions to kinetic equation for arbitrary Knudsen number. Fox also described 1st- and 2nd-order finite-volume schemes for solving the equations. The success of the new method is based on a moment-inversion algorithm that is used to calculate non-negative weights and abscissas from moments. The moment-inversion algorithm does not work if the moments are non-realizable, meaning they do not correspond to a distribution function. Not all the finite-volume schemes lead to realizable moments. Desjardins et al. showed that realizability is guaranteed with the 1 st-order finite-volume scheme, but at the expense of excess numerical diffusion. In the present work, the nonrealizability of the standard 2 nd-order finite-volume scheme is demonstrated and a generalized idea for the development of high-order realizable finite-volume schemes for quadrature-based moment methods is presented. This marks a significant improvement in the accuracy of solutions using the quadrature-based moment method as the use of 1st-order scheme to guarantee realizability is no longer a limitation
Ultracold neutrons, quantum effects of gravity and the Weak Equivalence Principle
We consider an extension of the recent experiment with ultracold neutrons and
the quantization of its vertical motion in order to test the Weak Equivalence
Principle. We show that an improvement on the energy resolution of the
experiment may allow to establish a modest limit to the Weak Equivalence
Principle and on the gravitational screening constant. We also discuss the
influence of a possible new interaction of Nature.Comment: Revtex4, 4 pages. Discussion on the equivalence principle altered.
Bound is improve
Nonlinear r-modes in Rapidly Rotating Relativistic Stars
The r-mode instability in rotating relativistic stars has been shown recently
to have important astrophysical implications (including the emission of
detectable gravitational radiation, the explanation of the initial spins of
young neutron stars and the spin-distribution of millisecond pulsars and the
explanation of one type of gamma-ray bursts), provided that r-modes are not
saturated at low amplitudes by nonlinear effects or by dissipative mechanisms.
Here, we present the first study of nonlinear r-modes in isentropic, rapidly
rotating relativistic stars, via 3-D general-relativistic hydrodynamical
evolutions. Our numerical simulations show that (1) on dynamical timescales,
there is no strong nonlinear coupling of r-modes to other modes at amplitudes
of order one -- unless nonlinear saturation occurs on longer timescales, the
maximum r-mode amplitude is of order unity (i.e., the velocity perturbation is
of the same order as the rotational velocity at the equator). An absolute upper
limit on the amplitude (relevant, perhaps, for the most rapidly rotating stars)
is set by causality. (2) r-modes and inertial modes in isentropic stars are
predominantly discrete modes and possible associated continuous parts were not
identified in our simulations. (3) In addition, the kinematical drift
associated with r-modes, recently found by Rezzolla, Lamb and Shapiro (2000),
appears to be present in our simulations, but an unambiguous confirmation
requires more precise initial data. We discuss the implications of our findings
for the detectability of gravitational waves from the r-mode instability.Comment: 4 pages, 4 eps figures, accepted in Physical Review Letter
Cosmological Hydrodynamics with Adaptive Mesh Refinement: a new high resolution code called RAMSES
A new N-body and hydrodynamical code, called RAMSES, is presented. It has
been designed to study structure formation in the universe with high spatial
resolution. The code is based on Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) technique, with
a tree based data structure allowing recursive grid refinements on a
cell-by-cell basis. The N-body solver is very similar to the one developed for
the ART code (Kravtsov et al. 97), with minor differences in the exact
implementation. The hydrodynamical solver is based on a second-order Godunov
method, a modern shock-capturing scheme known to compute accurately the thermal
history of the fluid component. The accuracy of the code is carefully estimated
using various test cases, from pure gas dynamical tests to cosmological ones.
The specific refinement strategy used in cosmological simulations is described,
and potential spurious effects associated to shock waves propagation in the
resulting AMR grid are discussed and found to be negligible. Results obtained
in a large N-body and hydrodynamical simulation of structure formation in a low
density LCDM universe are finally reported, with 256^3 particles and 4.1 10^7
cells in the AMR grid, reaching a formal resolution of 8192^3. A convergence
analysis of different quantities, such as dark matter density power spectrum,
gas pressure power spectrum and individual haloes temperature profiles, shows
that numerical results are converging down to the actual resolution limit of
the code, and are well reproduced by recent analytical predictions in the
framework of the halo model.Comment: 21 pages and 13 low resolution JPEG images. Accepted for publication
in A&
Hydrodynamic simulations of merging clusters of galaxies
We present the results of high-resolution AP3M+SPH simulations of merging clusters of galaxies. We find that the compression and shocking of the core gas during a merger can lead to large increases in bolometric X-ray luminosities and emission-weighted temperatures of clusters. Cooling flows are completely disrupted during equal-mass mergers, with the mass deposition rate dropping to zero as the cores of the clusters collide. The large increase in the cooling time of the core gas strongly suggests that cooling flows will not recover from such a merger within a Hubble time. Mergers with subclumps having one eighth of the mass of the main cluster are also found to disrupt a cooling flow if the merger is head-on. However, in this case the entropy injected into the core gas is rapidly radiated away and the cooling flow restarts within a few Gyr of the merger. Mergers in which the subcluster has an impact parameter of 500 kpc do not disrupt the cooling flow, although the mass deposition rate is reduced by ∼30 per cent. Finally, we find that equal mass, off-centre mergers can effectively mix gas in the cores of clusters, while head on mergers lead to very little mixing. Gas stripped from the outer layers of subclumps results in parts of the outer layers of the main cluster being well mixed, although they have little effect on the gas in the core of the cluster. None of the mergers examined here resulted in the intracluster medium being well mixed globally
Nonlinear r-Modes in Neutron Stars: Instability of an unstable mode
We study the dynamical evolution of a large amplitude r-mode by numerical
simulations. R-modes in neutron stars are unstable growing modes, driven by
gravitational radiation reaction. In these simulations, r-modes of amplitude
unity or above are destroyed by a catastrophic decay: A large amplitude r-mode
gradually leaks energy into other fluid modes, which in turn act nonlinearly
with the r-mode, leading to the onset of the rapid decay. As a result the
r-mode suddenly breaks down into a differentially rotating configuration. The
catastrophic decay does not appear to be related to shock waves at the star's
surface. The limit it imposes on the r-mode amplitude is significantly smaller
than that suggested by previous fully nonlinear numerical simulations.Comment: Published in Phys. Rev. D Rapid Comm. 66, 041303(R) (2002
Metal enrichment of the intra-cluster medium over a Hubble time for merging and relaxed galaxy clusters
We investigate the efficiency of galactic mass loss, triggered by
ram-pressure stripping and galactic winds of cluster galaxies, on the chemical
enrichment of the intra-cluster medium (ICM). We combine N-body and
hydrodynamic simulations with a semi-numerical galaxy formation model. By
including simultaneously different enrichment processes, namely ram-pressure
stripping and galactic winds, in galaxy-cluster simulations, we are able to
reproduce the observed metal distribution in the ICM. We find that the mass
loss by galactic winds in the redshift regime z>2 is ~10% to 20% of the total
galactic wind mass loss, whereas the mass loss by ram-pressure stripping in the
same epoch is up to 5% of the total ram-pressure stripping mass loss over the
whole simulation time. In the cluster formation epochs z<2 ram-pressure
stripping becomes more dominant than galactic winds. We discuss the
non-correlation between the evolution of the mean metallicity of galaxy
clusters and the galactic mass losses. For comparison with observations we
present two dimensional maps of the ICM quantities and radial metallicity
profiles. The shape of the observed profiles is well reproduced by the
simulations in the case of merging systems. In the case of cool-core clusters
the slope of the observed profiles are reproduced by the simulation at radii
below ~300 kpc, whereas at larger radii the observed profiles are shallower. We
confirm the inhomogeneous metal distribution in the ICM found in observations.
To study the robustness of our results, we investigate two different
descriptions for the enrichment process interaction.Comment: 11 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in A&A, high
resolution version can be found at
<http://astro.uibk.ac.at/~wolfgang/kapferer.pdf
Metal enrichment of the intra-cluster medium by thermally and cosmic-ray driven galactic winds
We investigate the efficiency and time-dependence of thermally and cosmic ray
driven galactic winds for the metal enrichment of the intra-cluster medium
(ICM) using a new analytical approximation for the mass outflow. The spatial
distribution of the metals are studied using radial metallicity profiles and 2D
metallicity maps of the model clusters as they would be observed by X-ray
telescopes like XMM-Newton. Analytical approximations for the mass loss by
galactic winds driven by thermal and cosmic ray pressure are derived from the
Bernoulli equation and implemented in combined N-body/hydrodynamic cosmological
simulations with a semi-analytical galaxy formation model. Observable
quantities like the mean metallicity, metallicity profiles, and 2D metal maps
of the model clusters are derived from the simulations. We find that galactic
winds alone cannot account for the observed metallicity of the ICM. At redshift
the model clusters have metallicities originating from galactic winds
which are almost a factor of 10 lower than the observed values. For massive,
relaxed clusters we find, as in previous studies, a central drop in the
metallicity due to a suppression of the galactic winds by the pressure of the
ambient ICM. Combining ram-pressure stripping and galactic winds we find radial
metallicity profiles of the model clusters which agree qualitatively with
observed profiles. Only in the inner parts of massive clusters the observed
profiles are steeper than in the simulations. Also the combination of galactic
winds and ram-pressure stripping yields too low values for the ICM
metallicities. The slope of the redshift evolution of the mean metallicity in
the simulations agrees reasonably well with recent observations.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, accepted by A&
Towards a Realistic Neutron Star Binary Inspiral: Initial Data and Multiple Orbit Evolution in Full General Relativity
This paper reports on our effort in modeling realistic astrophysical neutron
star binaries in general relativity. We analyze under what conditions the
conformally flat quasiequilibrium (CFQE) approach can generate
``astrophysically relevant'' initial data, by developing an analysis that
determines the violation of the CFQE approximation in the evolution of the
binary described by the full Einstein theory. We show that the CFQE assumptions
significantly violate the Einstein field equations for corotating neutron stars
at orbital separations nearly double that of the innermost stable circular
orbit (ISCO) separation, thus calling into question the astrophysical relevance
of the ISCO determined in the CFQE approach. With the need to start numerical
simulations at large orbital separation in mind, we push for stable and long
term integrations of the full Einstein equations for the binary neutron star
system. We demonstrate the stability of our numerical treatment and analyze the
stringent requirements on resolution and size of the computational domain for
an accurate simulation of the system.Comment: 22 pages, 18 figures, accepted to Phys. Rev.
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