Relativistic Radiation Magnetohydrodynamics in Dynamical Spacetimes: Numerical Methods and Tests

Understand

Many systems of current interest in relativistic astrophysics require a knowledge of radiative transfer in a magnetized gas flowing in a strongly-curved, dynamical spacetime.

• Such systems include coalescing compact binaries containing neutron stars or white dwarfs, disks around merging black holes, core collapse supernovae, collapsars, and gamma-ray burst sources.
• To model these phenomena, all of which involve general relativity, radiation (photon and/or neutrino), and magnetohydrodynamics, we have developed a general relativistic code capable of evolving MHD fluids and radiation in dynamical spacetimes.
• Our code solves the coupled Einstein-Maxwell-MHD-Radiation system of equations both in axisymmetry and in full 3+1 dimensions.