A fast and accurate method of radiation hydrodynamics calculation in spherical symmetry

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel numerical scheme for radiative transfer in spherical symmetry that is both highly accurate across different optical regimes and computationally efficient, suitable for complex astrophysical simulations.

Contribution

The authors present a new fast and accurate method for radiation hydrodynamics calculations in spherical symmetry, avoiding diffusion approximations and applicable to various optical depths.

Findings

Method is highly accurate for optically thin, thick, and intermediate systems.

Combines speed with applicability to realistic problems.

Validated with protostellar collapse simulations.

Abstract

We develop a new numerical scheme for solving the radiative transfer equation in a spherically symmetric system. This scheme does not rely on any kind of diffusion approximation and it is accurate for optically thin, thick, and intermediate systems. In the limit of a homogeneously distributed extinction coefficient, our method is very accurate and exceptionally fast. We combine this fast method with a slower, but more generally applicable method to describe realistic problems. We perform various test calculations including a simplified protostellar collapse simulation. We also discuss possible future improvements.