We look in detail at the process of mapping an astrophysical initial model from a stellar evolution code onto the computational grid of an explicit, Godunov type code while maintaining hydrostatic equilibrium. This mapping process is common in astrophysical simulations, when it is necessary to follow short-timescale dynamics after a period of long timescale buildup. We look at the effects of spatial resolution, boundary conditions, the treatment of the gravitational source terms in the hydrodynamics solver, and the initialization process itself. We conclude with a summary detailing the mapping process that yields the lowest ambient velocities in the mapped model.
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0208031,
title = {Mapping Initial Hydrostatic Models in Godunov Codes},
author = {M. Zingale and L. J. Dursi and J. ZuHone and A. C. Calder and B. Fryxell and T. Plewa and J. W. Truran and A. Caceres and K. Olson and P. M. Ricker and K. Riley and R. Rosner and A. Siegel and F. X. Timmes and N. Vladimirova},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0208031},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
59 pages, 21 figures, accepted to ApJS. Some figures are degraded for size constraints