English

Conservative Moment Equations for Neutrino Radiation Transport with Limited Relativity

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 2012-12-18 v1

Abstract

We derive conservative, multidimensional, energy-dependent moment equations for neutrino transport in core-collapse supernovae and related astrophysical systems, with particular attention to the consistency of conservative four-momentum and lepton number transport equations. After taking angular moments of conservative formulations of the general relativistic Boltzmann equation, we specialize to a conformally flat spacetime, which also serves as the basis for four further limits. Two of these---the multidimensional special relativistic case, and a conformally flat formulation of the spherically symmetric general relativistic case---are given in appendices for the sake of comparison with extant literature. The third limit is a weak-field, `pseudo-Newtonian' approach \citep{kim_etal_2009,kim_etal_2012} in which the source of the gravitational potential includes the trace of the stress-energy tensor (rather than just the mass density), and all orders in fluid velocity vv are retained. Our primary interest here is in the fourth limit: `O(v)\mathcal{O}(v)' moment equations for use in conjunction with Newtonian self-gravitating hydrodynamics. We show that the concept of `O(v)\mathcal{O}(v)' transport requires care when dealing with both conservative four-momentum and conservative lepton number transport, and present two self-consistent options: `O(v)\mathcal{O}(v)-plus' transport, in which an O(v2)\mathcal{O}(v^2) energy equation combines with an O(v)\mathcal{O}(v) momentum equation to give an O(v2)\mathcal{O}(v^2) number equation; and `O(v)\mathcal{O}(v)-minus' transport, in which an O(v)\mathcal{O}(v) energy equation combines with an O(1)\mathcal{O}(1) momentum equation to give an O(v)\mathcal{O}(v) number equation.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1212.4064,
  title  = {Conservative Moment Equations for Neutrino Radiation Transport with Limited Relativity},
  author = {Eirik Endeve and Christian Y. Cardall and Anthony Mezzacappa},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1212.4064},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

Submitted to the Astrophysical Journal