Berkeley Fluids Seminar
University of California, Berkeley
Bring your lunch and enjoy learning about fluids!
October 1, 2014
Nathaniel Roth (Physics, UC Berkeley)
Astrophysical radiation-hydrodynamics using Monte Carlo radiative transfer
Radiation plays a crucial dynamical role in many astrophysical systems such as black hole accretion disks, the atmospheres of massive stars, and supernova shock breakouts. I will review the fundamental equations governing radiation-hydrodynamics. I will then describe a technique to solve these equations in which the radiative transfer side of the problem is performed using a time-dependent, frequency-dependent Monte Carlo technique. In this approach, the radiative transfer is used to compute the first three moments of the radiation intensity field, and these moments are used to construct energy and momentum source terms for the conservation equations governing the fluid dynamics. The gas and radiation states are then updated for each hydrodynamical time step in an operator-split manner. I will show how our code has been validated against semi-analytic solutions of the structure of radiative shocks in one spatial dimension. Finally, I will address some of the challenging yet potentially rewarding prospects for scaling this technique up to more realistic three-dimensional problems.
Acknowledgments
Prof. Graham Fleming (Vice Chancellor for Research, UC Berkeley)
Prof. Eliot Quataert on behalf of The Theoretical Astrophysics Center and the Astronomy Department (UC Berkeley)
Prof. Philip S. Marcus on behalf of the Mechanical Engineering Department (UC Berkeley)
Prof. Michael Manga (Earth and Planetary Science, UC Berkeley)
Prof. Evan Variano (Civil and Environmental Engineering, UC Berkeley)