Astrophysical fluid simulations of thermally ideal gases with non-constant adiabatic index: numerical implementation

An Equation of State (\textit{EoS}) closes the set of fluid equations. Although an ideal EoS with a constant \textit{adiabatic index} $\Gamma$ is the preferred choice due to its simplistic implementation, many astrophysical fluid simulations may benefit from a more sophisticated treatment that can account for diverse chemical processes. Here, we first review the basic thermodynamic principles of a gas mixture in terms of its thermal and caloric EoS by including effects like ionization, dissociation as well as temperature dependent degrees of freedom such as molecular vibrations and rotations. The formulation is revisited in the context of plasmas that are either in equilibrium conditions (local thermodynamic- or collisional excitation- equilibria) or described by non-equilibrium chemistry coupled to optically thin radiative cooling. We then present a numerical implementation of thermally ideal gases obeying a more general caloric EoS with non-constant adiabatic index in Godunov-type numerical schemes.We discuss the necessary modifications to the Riemann solver and to the conversion between total energy and pressure (or vice-versa) routinely invoked in Godunov-type schemes. We then present two different approaches for computing the EoS.The first one employs root-finder methods and it is best suited for EoS in analytical form. The second one leans on lookup table and interpolation and results in a more computationally efficient approach although care must be taken to ensure thermodynamic consistency. A number of selected benchmarks demonstrate that the employment of a non-ideal EoS can lead to important differences in the solution when the temperature range is $500-10^4$ K where dissociation and ionization occur. The implementation of selected EoS introduces additional computational costs although using lookup table methods can significantly reduce the overhead by a factor $3\sim 4$.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, Accepted for publication in A&

Monopoles and Solitons in Fuzzy Physics

Monopoles and solitons have important topological aspects like quantized fluxes, winding numbers and curved target spaces. Naive discretizations which substitute a lattice of points for the underlying manifolds are incapable of retaining these features in a precise way. We study these problems of discrete physics and matrix models and discuss mathematically coherent discretizations of monopoles and solitons using fuzzy physics and noncommutative geometry. A fuzzy sigma-model action for the two-sphere fulfilling a fuzzy Belavin-Polyakov bound is also put forth.Comment: 17 pages, Latex. Uses amstex, amssymb.Spelling of the name of one Author corrected. To appear in Commun.Math.Phy

S-Matrix on the Moyal Plane: Locality versus Lorentz Invariance

Twisted quantum field theories on the Groenewold-Moyal plane are known to be non-local. Despite this non-locality, it is possible to define a generalized notion of causality. We show that interacting quantum field theories that involve only couplings between matter fields, or between matter fields and minimally coupled U(1) gauge fields are causal in this sense. On the other hand, interactions between matter fields and non-abelian gauge fields violate this generalized causality. We derive the modified Feynman rules emergent from these features. They imply that interactions of matter with non-abelian gauge fields are not Lorentz- and CPT-invariant.Comment: 15 pages, LaTeX, 1 figur

A radiating dyon solution

We give a non-static exact solution of the Einstein-Maxwell equations (with null fluid), which is a non-static magnetic charge generalization to the Bonnor-Vaidya solution and describes the gravitational and electromagnetic fields of a nonrotating massive radiating dyon. In addition, using the energy-momentum pseudotensors of Einstein and Landau and Lifshitz we obtain the energy, momentum, and power output of the radiating dyon and find that both prescriptions give the same result.Comment: 9 pages, LaTe

Twisted Gauge and Gravity Theories on the Groenewold-Moyal Plane

Recent work [hep-th/0504183,hep-th/0508002] indicates an approach to the formulation of diffeomorphism invariant quantum field theories (qft's) on the Groenewold-Moyal (GM) plane. In this approach to the qft's, statistics gets twisted and the S-matrix in the non-gauge qft's becomes independent of the noncommutativity parameter theta^{\mu\nu}. Here we show that the noncommutative algebra has a commutative spacetime algebra as a substructure: the Poincare, diffeomorphism and gauge groups are based on this algebra in the twisted approach as is known already from the earlier work of [hep-th/0510059]. It is natural to base covariant derivatives for gauge and gravity fields as well on this algebra. Such an approach will in particular introduce no additional gauge fields as compared to the commutative case and also enable us to treat any gauge group (and not just U(N)). Then classical gravity and gauge sectors are the same as those for \theta^{\mu \nu}=0, but their interactions with matter fields are sensitive to theta^{\mu \nu}. We construct quantum noncommutative gauge theories (for arbitrary gauge groups) by requiring consistency of twisted statistics and gauge invariance. In a subsequent paper (whose results are summarized here), the locality and Lorentz invariance properties of the S-matrices of these theories will be analyzed, and new non-trivial effects coming from noncommutativity will be elaborated. This paper contains further developments of [hep-th/0608138] and a new formulation based on its approach.Comment: 17 pages, LaTeX, 1 figur

Statistics and UV-IR Mixing with Twisted Poincare Invariance

We elaborate on the role of quantum statistics in twisted Poincare invariant theories. It is shown that, in order to have twisted Poincare group as the symmetry of a quantum theory, statistics must be twisted. It is also confirmed that the removal of UV-IR mixing (in the absence of gauge fields) in such theories is a natural consequence.Comment: 13 pages, LaTeX; typos correcte

Entropy and Correlation Functions of a Driven Quantum Spin Chain

We present an exact solution for a quantum spin chain driven through its critical points. Our approach is based on a many-body generalization of the Landau-Zener transition theory, applied to fermionized spin Hamiltonian. The resulting nonequilibrium state of the system, while being a pure quantum state, has local properties of a mixed state characterized by finite entropy density associated with Kibble-Zurek defects. The entropy, as well as the finite spin correlation length, are functions of the rate of sweep through the critical point. We analyze the anisotropic XY spin 1/2 model evolved with a full many-body evolution operator. With the help of Toeplitz determinants calculus, we obtain an exact form of correlation functions. The properties of the evolved system undergo an abrupt change at a certain critical sweep rate, signaling formation of ordered domains. We link this phenomenon to the behavior of complex singularities of the Toeplitz generating function.Comment: 16 pgs, 7 fg