Grain growth for astrophysics with Discontinuous Galerkin schemes

TL;DR

This paper introduces a high-order Discontinuous Galerkin numerical scheme for accurately modeling dust grain growth in astrophysics, overcoming limitations of existing methods in 3D simulations.

Contribution

It develops a mass-conserving, high-order solver that accurately simulates dust coagulation over large size ranges with few dust bins.

Findings

Conserves mass to machine precision.

Accurately models dust growth over several orders of magnitude.

Requires limited dust bins for precise results.

Abstract

Depending on their sizes, dust grains store more or less charges, catalyse more or less chemical reactions, intercept more or less photons and stick more or less efficiently to form embryos of planets. Hence the need for an accurate treatment of dust coagulation and fragmentation in numerical modelling. However, existing algorithms for solving the coagulation equation are over-diffusive in the conditions of 3D simulations. We address this challenge by developing a high-order solver based on the Discontinuous Galerkin method. This algorithm conserves mass to machine precision and allows to compute accurately the growth of dust grains over several orders of magnitude in size with a very limited number of dust bins.