Vol. 11 (2008) > lrr-2008-7

doi: 10.12942/lrr-2008-7
Living Rev. Relativity 11 (2008), 7

Numerical Hydrodynamics and Magnetohydrodynamics in General Relativity

1 Departamento de Astronomía y Astrofísica, Edificio de Investigación "Jeroni Muñoz", Universidad de Valencia, Dr. Moliner 50, E-46100 Burjassot (Valencia), Spain

Full text: HTML | PDF (2930.9 Kb)

Article Abstract

This article presents a comprehensive overview of numerical hydrodynamics and magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) in general relativity. Some significant additions have been incorporated with respect to the previous two versions of this review (2000, 2003), most notably the coverage of general-relativistic MHD, a field in which remarkable activity and progress has occurred in the last few years. Correspondingly, the discussion of astrophysical simulations in general-relativistic hydrodynamics is enlarged to account for recent relevant advances, while those dealing with general-relativistic MHD are amply covered in this review for the first time. The basic outline of this article is nevertheless similar to its earlier versions, save for the addition of MHD-related issues throughout. Hence, different formulations of both the hydrodynamics and MHD equations are presented, with special mention of conservative and hyperbolic formulations well adapted to advanced numerical methods. A large sample of numerical approaches for solving such hyperbolic systems of equations is discussed, paying particular attention to solution procedures based on schemes exploiting the characteristic structure of the equations through linearized Riemann solvers. As previously stated, a comprehensive summary of astrophysical simulations in strong gravitational fields is also presented. These are detailed in three basic sections, namely gravitational collapse, black-hole accretion, and neutron-star evolutions; despite the boundaries, these sections may (and in fact do) overlap throughout the discussion. The material contained in these sections highlights the numerical challenges of various representative simulations. It also follows, to some extent, the chronological development of the field, concerning advances in the formulation of the gravitational field, hydrodynamics and MHD equations and the numerical methodology designed to solve them. To keep the length of this article reasonable, an effort has been made to focus on multidimensional studies, directing the interested reader to earlier versions of the review for discussions on one-dimensional works.

Keywords: Hydrodynamics, Relativistic hydrodynamics, Numerical relativity, Magnetohydrodynamics

Article Downloads

Article Format Size (Kb)
147708.3
2930.9
2817.5
1972.1
References
BibTeX
RIS UTF-8 Latin-1
EndNote UTF-8 Latin-1
RDF+DC

Article Citation

Since a Living Reviews in Relativity article may evolve over time, please cite the access <date>, which uniquely identifies the version of the article you are referring to:

José A. Font,
"Numerical Hydrodynamics and Magnetohydrodynamics in General Relativity",
Living Rev. Relativity 11,  (2008),  7. URL (cited on <date>):
http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2008-7

Article History

ORIGINAL http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2000-2
Title Numerical Hydrodynamics in General Relativity
Author José A. Font
Date accepted 28 March 2000, published 8 May 2000
UPDATE http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2003-4
Title Numerical Hydrodynamics in General Relativity
Author José A. Font
Date accepted 6 May 2003, published 19 August 2003
Changes Article revision. Sections 3 and 4 have undergone substantial changes and have been considerably enlarged; almost all sections have been updated. The number of references has been extended from previous 241 to the current 319.
UPDATE http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2008-7
Title Numerical Hydrodynamics and Magnetohydrodynamics in General Relativity
Author José A. Font
Date accepted 21 July 2008, published 19 September 2008
Changes The title has been changed to emphasize that numerical magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) is now also reviewed.

The abstract has been changed accordingly, regarding the MHD aspects of the new version.

The sectioning in Section 2 is unchanged, yet the contents may have seen slight updates wherever necessary.

Section 3 on MHD is entirely new.

Section 4 (which was Section 3 in the previous version) has seen changes throughout (new text and new descriptions to account for recent developments) along with new additions.
The Section 3.2.3 in the previous version of the article has been removed and some of its contents have been moved into the "going further" section (Section 4.2.3 in the updated version of the article). Section 4.3 on the magnetic field divergence-constraint is entirely new. Section 4.4. on state-of-the-art codes has undergone major changes with respect to the corresponding Section 3.3. of the previous version of the article. This section is splitted into two main subsections, each one of them devoted to describing hydrodynamical and MHD codes, respectively. Major updates have occurred in each of these subsections and two tables have been added.

Section 5 on astrophysical applications has been widely updated and enlarged to accommodate the spectacular level of activity witnessed in the field in recent years, both regarding hydrodynamics and MHD. While the basic subsectioning of this section still coincides (broadly speaking) with that of the previous version of the article, major modifications and additions have occurred throughout regarding the contents. In general, the description of one-dimensional studies has been reduced to limit the length of the article. The previous Section 4.1.2 on critical collapse has been removed. New figures and animations have been added, in particular those appearing in Figures 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 16, and 18 (where the numbering here applies to the revised version of the article).

The reference list has been noticeably enlarged.
  • Bookmark this article:
  • bibsonomy
  • citeulike
  • delicious
  • digg
  • mendeley
Comment(s) on this article
 

Articles

References

19.250
Impact Factor 2014