Radiation Transport Through Super-Eddington Stellar Winds

TL;DR

This paper explores the feasibility of simulating radiation transport in super-Eddington stellar winds using a 3-D radiation hydrodynamics code, demonstrating initial 1-D relaxation and outlining future physics enhancements.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of the Cassio code for modeling stellar outflows and discusses the transition from 1-D to more complex multi-dimensional simulations.

Findings

1-D simulation relaxes into hydrostatic equilibrium.

Simulation resources are manageable for 2-D modeling.

Next steps include adding more physics and modeling energy deposition effects.

Abstract

We present results of simulations to assess the feasibility of modeling outflows from massive stars using the Los Alamos 3-D radiation hydrodynamics code Cassio developed for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) applications. We find that a 1-D stellar envelope simulation relaxes into hydrostatic equilibrium using computing resources that would make the simulation tractable in 2-D. We summarize next steps to include more physics fidelity and model the response to a large and abrupt energy deposition at the base of the envelope.