24 research outputs found
Numerical stability of a new conformal-traceless 3+1 formulation of the Einstein equation
There is strong evidence indicating that the particular form used to recast
the Einstein equation as a 3+1 set of evolution equations has a fundamental
impact on the stability properties of numerical evolutions involving black
holes and/or neutron stars. Presently, the longest lived evolutions have been
obtained using a parametrized hyperbolic system developed by Kidder, Scheel and
Teukolsky or a conformal-traceless system introduced by Baumgarte, Shapiro,
Shibata and Nakamura. We present a new conformal-traceless system. While this
new system has some elements in common with the
Baumgarte-Shapiro-Shibata-Nakamura system, it differs in both the type of
conformal transformations and how the non-linear terms involving the extrinsic
curvature are handled. We show results from 3D numerical evolutions of a
single, non-rotating black hole in which we demonstrate that this new system
yields a significant improvement in the life-time of the simulations.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure
Strongly hyperbolic second order Einstein's evolution equations
BSSN-type evolution equations are discussed. The name refers to the
Baumgarte, Shapiro, Shibata, and Nakamura version of the Einstein evolution
equations, without introducing the conformal-traceless decomposition but
keeping the three connection functions and including a densitized lapse. It is
proved that a pseudo-differential first order reduction of these equations is
strongly hyperbolic. In the same way, densitized Arnowitt-Deser-Misner
evolution equations are found to be weakly hyperbolic. In both cases, the
positive densitized lapse function and the spacelike shift vector are arbitrary
given fields. This first order pseudodifferential reduction adds no extra
equations to the system and so no extra constraints.Comment: LaTeX, 16 pages, uses revtex4. Referee corections and new appendix
added. English grammar improved; typos correcte
The discrete energy method in numerical relativity: Towards long-term stability
The energy method can be used to identify well-posed initial boundary value
problems for quasi-linear, symmetric hyperbolic partial differential equations
with maximally dissipative boundary conditions. A similar analysis of the
discrete system can be used to construct stable finite difference equations for
these problems at the linear level. In this paper we apply these techniques to
some test problems commonly used in numerical relativity and observe that while
we obtain convergent schemes, fast growing modes, or ``artificial
instabilities,'' contaminate the solution. We find that these growing modes can
partially arise from the lack of a Leibnitz rule for discrete derivatives and
discuss ways to limit this spurious growth.Comment: 18 pages, 22 figure
Relativistic MHD and black hole excision: Formulation and initial tests
A new algorithm for solving the general relativistic MHD equations is
described in this paper. We design our scheme to incorporate black hole
excision with smooth boundaries, and to simplify solving the combined Einstein
and MHD equations with AMR. The fluid equations are solved using a finite
difference Convex ENO method. Excision is implemented using overlapping grids.
Elliptic and hyperbolic divergence cleaning techniques allow for maximum
flexibility in choosing coordinate systems, and we compare both methods for a
standard problem. Numerical results of standard test problems are presented in
two-dimensional flat space using excision, overlapping grids, and elliptic and
hyperbolic divergence cleaning.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figure
Simulating binary neutron stars: dynamics and gravitational waves
We model two mergers of orbiting binary neutron stars, the first forming a
black hole and the second a differentially rotating neutron star. We extract
gravitational waveforms in the wave zone. Comparisons to a post-Newtonian
analysis allow us to compute the orbital kinematics, including trajectories and
orbital eccentricities. We verify our code by evolving single stars and
extracting radial perturbative modes, which compare very well to results from
perturbation theory. The Einstein equations are solved in a first order
reduction of the generalized harmonic formulation, and the fluid equations are
solved using a modified convex essentially non-oscillatory method. All
calculations are done in three spatial dimensions without symmetry assumptions.
We use the \had computational infrastructure for distributed adaptive mesh
refinement.Comment: 14 pages, 16 figures. Added one figure from previous version;
corrected typo
Illustrating Stability Properties of Numerical Relativity in Electrodynamics
We show that a reformulation of the ADM equations in general relativity,
which has dramatically improved the stability properties of numerical
implementations, has a direct analogue in classical electrodynamics. We
numerically integrate both the original and the revised versions of Maxwell's
equations, and show that their distinct numerical behavior reflects the
properties found in linearized general relativity. Our results shed further
light on the stability properties of general relativity, illustrate them in a
very transparent context, and may provide a useful framework for further
improvement of numerical schemes.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, to be published as Brief Report in Physical
Review
Boundary conditions for hyperbolic formulations of the Einstein equations
In regards to the initial-boundary value problem of the Einstein equations,
we argue that the projection of the Einstein equations along the normal to the
boundary yields necessary and appropriate boundary conditions for a wide class
of equivalent formulations. We explicitly show that this is so for the
Einstein-Christoffel formulation of the Einstein equations in the case of
spherical symmetry.Comment: 15 pages; text added and typesetting errors corrected; to appear in
Classical and Quantum Gravit
Adjusted ADM systems and their expected stability properties: constraint propagation analysis in Schwarzschild spacetime
In order to find a way to have a better formulation for numerical evolution
of the Einstein equations, we study the propagation equations of the
constraints based on the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner formulation. By adjusting
constraint terms in the evolution equations, we try to construct an
"asymptotically constrained system" which is expected to be robust against
violation of the constraints, and to enable a long-term stable and accurate
numerical simulation. We first provide useful expressions for analyzing
constraint propagation in a general spacetime, then apply it to Schwarzschild
spacetime. We search when and where the negative real or non-zero imaginary
eigenvalues of the homogenized constraint propagation matrix appear, and how
they depend on the choice of coordinate system and adjustments. Our analysis
includes the proposal of Detweiler (1987), which is still the best one
according to our conjecture but has a growing mode of error near the horizon.
Some examples are snapshots of a maximally sliced Schwarzschild black hole. The
predictions here may help the community to make further improvements.Comment: 23 pages, RevTeX4, many figures. Revised version. Added subtitle,
reduced figures, rephrased introduction, and a native checked. :-
On the Nonlinear Stability of Asymptotically Anti-de Sitter Solutions
Despite the recent evidence that anti-de Sitter spacetime is nonlinearly
unstable, we argue that many asymptotically anti-de Sitter solutions are
nonlinearly stable. This includes geons, boson stars, and black holes. As part
of our argument, we calculate the frequencies of long-lived gravitational
quasinormal modes of AdS black holes in various dimensions. We also discuss a
new class of asymptotically anti-de Sitter solutions describing noncoalescing
black hole binaries.Comment: 26 pages. 5 figure
Relativistic MHD with Adaptive Mesh Refinement
This paper presents a new computer code to solve the general relativistic
magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD) equations using distributed parallel adaptive mesh
refinement (AMR). The fluid equations are solved using a finite difference
Convex ENO method (CENO) in 3+1 dimensions, and the AMR is Berger-Oliger.
Hyperbolic divergence cleaning is used to control the
constraint. We present results from three flat space tests, and examine the
accretion of a fluid onto a Schwarzschild black hole, reproducing the Michel
solution. The AMR simulations substantially improve performance while
reproducing the resolution equivalent unigrid simulation results. Finally, we
discuss strong scaling results for parallel unigrid and AMR runs.Comment: 24 pages, 14 figures, 3 table