English

Smoothed particle magnetohydrodynamics

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics 2023-11-27 v1 Earth and Planetary Astrophysics Astrophysics of Galaxies High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Abstract

Smoothed particle magnetohydrodynamics has reached a level of maturity that enables the study of a wide range of astrophysical problems. In this review, the numerical details of the modern SPMHD method are described. The three fundamental components of SPMHD are methods to evolve the magnetic field in time, calculate accelerations from the magnetic field, and maintain the divergence-free constraint on the magnetic field (no monopoles). The connection between these three requirements in SPMHD will be highlighted throughout. The focus of this review is on the methods that work well in practice, with discussion on why they work well and other approaches do not. Numerical instabilities will be discussed, as well as strategies to overcome them. The inclusion of non-ideal MHD effects will be presented. A prospective outlook on possible avenues for further improvements will be discussed.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2311.13666,
  title  = {Smoothed particle magnetohydrodynamics},
  author = {Terrence S. Tricco},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2311.13666},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

Review article. 29 pages. Accepted (in press) in research topic, Star Formation: Numerical Simulations And What They Teach Us, published in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences

R2 v1 2026-06-28T13:28:59.586Z