arXiv subjects

Bibek Gautam

Publications and source records attributed to Bibek Gautam.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

The Interplay of Magnetic Fields, Turbulence and Vorticity in Core-Collapse Supernovae

The convective turbulent motion of the fluid below the shock in a core-collapse supernova stretches and amplifies the magnetic field of the progenitor star. The energy contained in the field is sourced from the work done by the fluid on the field which comes at the expense of the fluid's kinetic and internal energy. In addition to the energy exchange with the fluid, the magnetic field also has a back-reaction upon the fluid via a contribution to the baroclinic vector and thus affects the fluid vorticity. In this paper we explore the interaction of the magnetic field with the fluid in core-collapse supernovae using the ELEPHANT code with solar-metallicity stars of 15 and 20 \msun zero-age main sequence mass and purely toroidal initial magnetic fields of $B_0 = 0, 10^{10}, and 10^{12}$~G. We find that the magnetic field in the gain region does not become so large that it alters the global dynamics above the 10% level in the early post-bounce evolution. The turbulent kinetic energy of the fluid in the gain region is smaller in simulations with a strong initial magnetic field, but the exact amount of reduction is uncertain due to limitations of the methods for measuring turbulent kinetic energy. The structure of the field in the simulations quickly becomes a tangled mass of flux ropes as soon as convection begins, which leads to a large magnetic field contribution to the baroclinic vector that dominates over the hydrodynamic contribution. Although governed by very similar transport equations to the magnetic field, the fluid vorticity and magnetic field are always close to being randomly aligned at every stage of the evolution. The enstrophy, which is seen to be closely associated with the turbulent kinetic energy, is found to be reduced in simulations with a strong initial magnetic field supporting the inference that the magnetic field reduces the amount of turbulence in the fluid.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2025

Turbulence in Core-Collapse Supernovae

It is understood in a general sense that turbulent fluid motion below the shock front in a core-collapse supernova stiffens the effective equation of state of the fluid and aids in the revival of the explosion. However, when one wishes to be precise and quantify the amount of turbulence in a supernova simulation, one immediately encounters the problem that turbulence is difficult to define and measure. Using the 3D magnetohydrodynamic code ELEPHANT, we study how different definitions of turbulence change one's conclusions about the amount of turbulence in a supernova and the extent to which it helps the explosion. We find that, while all the definitions of turbulence we use lead to a qualitatively similar growth pattern over time of the turbulent kinetic energy in the gain region, the total amount of turbulent kinetic energy, and especially the ratios of turbulent to total kinetic energy, distinguish them. Some of the definitions appear to indicate turbulence is a necessary contributor to the explosion, and others indicate it is not. The different definitions also produce turbulence maps with different correlations with maps of the enstrophy, a quantity widely regarded as also indicating the presence of turbulence. We also compute the turbulent adiabatic index and observe that in regions of low enstrophy, this quantity is sensitive to the definition used. As a consequence, the effective adiabatic index depends upon the method used to measure the turbulence and thus alter one's conclusions regarding the impact of turbulence within the supernova.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

EinsteinPy: A Community Python Package for General Relativity

This paper presents EinsteinPy (version 0.3), a community-developed Python package for gravitational and relativistic astrophysics. Python is a free, easy to use a high-level programming language which has seen a huge expansion in the number of its users and developers in recent years. Specifically, a lot of recent studies show that the use of Python in Astrophysics and general physics has increased exponentially. We aim to provide a very high level of abstraction, an easy to use interface and pleasing user experience. EinsteinPy is developed keeping in mind the state of a theoretical gravitational physicist with little or no background in computer programming and trying to work in the field of numerical relativity or trying to use simulations in their research. Currently, EinsteinPy supports simulation of time-like and null geodesics and calculates trajectories in different background geometries some of which are Schwarzschild, Kerr, and KerrNewmann along with coordinate inter-conversion pipeline. It has a partially developed pipeline for plotting and visualization with dependencies on libraries like Plotly, matplotlib, etc. One of the unique features of EinsteinPy is a sufficiently developed symbolic tensor manipulation utilities which are a great tool in itself for teaching yourself tensor algebra which for many beginner students can be overwhelmingly tricky. EinsteinPy also provides few utility functions for hypersurface embedding of Schwarzschild spacetime which further will be extended to model gravitational lensing simulation.

gr-qc↗