Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics coupled with Radiation Transfer

We describe a new, faster implicit algorithm for solving the radiation hydrodynamics equations in the flux-limited diffusion approximation for smoothed particle hydrodynamics. This improves on the method elucidated in Whitehouse & Bate by using a Gauss-Seidel iterative method rather than iterating over the exchange of energy between pairs of particles. The new algorithm is typically many thousands of times faster than the old one, which will enable more complex problems to be...

We describe RAGE, the ``Radiation Adaptive Grid Eulerian'' radiation-hydrodynamics code, including its data structures, its parallelization strategy and performance, its hydrodynamic algorithm(s), its (gray) radiation diffusion algorithm, and some of the considerable amount of verification and validation efforts. The hydrodynamics is a basic Godunov solver, to which we have made significant improvements to increase the advection algorithm's robustness and to converge stiffnes...

We describe a photon-conserving radiative transfer algorithm, using a spatially-adaptive ray tracing scheme, and its parallel implementation into the adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) cosmological hydrodynamics code, Enzo. By coupling the solver with the energy equation and non-equilibrium chemistry network, our radiation hydrodynamics framework can be utilised to study a broad range of astrophysical problems, such as stellar and black hole (BH) feedback. Inaccuracies can arise ...

We present a practical guide to Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (\SPH) and its application to astrophysical problems. Although remarkably robust, \SPH\ must be used with care if the results are to be meaningful since the accuracy of \SPH\ is sensitive to the arrangement of the particles and the form of the smoothing kernel. In particular, the initial conditions for any \SPH\ simulation must consist of particles in dynamic equilibrium. We describe some of the numerical difficu...

We present a new fast algorithm which allows the simulation of ionising radiation emitted from point sources to be included in high-resolution three-dimensional smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations of star cluster formation. We employ a Str\"omgren volume technique in which we use the densities of particles near the line-of-sight between the source and a given target particle to locate the ionisation front in the direction of the target. Along with one--dimensional tes...

We present a new framework for radiation hydrodynamics simulations. Gas dynamics is modelled by the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method, whereas radiation transfer is simulated via a time-dependent Monte-Carlo approach that traces photon packets. As a first step in the development of the method, in this paper we consider the momentum transfer between radiation field and gas, which is important for systems where radiation pressure is high. There is no fundamental limi...

A new means of incorporating radiative transfer into smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) is introduced, which builds on the success of two previous methods - the polytropic cooling approximation as devised by Stamatellos et al (2007), and flux limited diffusion (e.g. Mayer et al 2007). This hybrid method preserves the strengths of its individual components, while removing the need for atmosphere matching or other boundary conditions to marry optically thick and optically th...

Modelling the interaction between ionizing photons emitted from massive stars and their environment is essential to further our understanding of galactic ecosystems. We present a hybrid Radiation-Hydrodynamics (RHD) scheme that couples an SPH code to a grid-based Monte Carlo Radiative Transfer code. The coupling is achieved by using the particle positions as generating sites for a Voronoi grid, and applying a precise mapping of particle-interpolated densities onto the grid ce...

An implicit method for radiative transfer in SPH is described. The diffusion approximation is used, and the hydrodynamic calculations are performed by a fully three--dimensional SPH code. Instead of the energy equation of state for an ideal gas, various energy states and the dissociation of hydrogen molecules are considered in the energy calculation for a more realistic temperature and pressure determination. In order to test the implicit code, we have performed non--isotherm...

We present a new method of incorporating radiative transfer into Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH). There have been many recent attempts at radiative transfer in SPH (Stamatellos et al 2005, 2005, Mayer et al 2007, Whitehouse and Bate 2006), however these are becoming increasingly complex, with some methods requiring the photosphere to be mapped (which is often of non-trivial geometric shape), and extra conditions to be applied there (matching atmospheres as in Cai et al ...