arXiv subjects

Erik Schnetter

Publications and source records attributed to Erik Schnetter.

100 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2005

Black hole formation through fragmentation of toroidal polytropes

We investigate new paths to black hole formation by considering the general relativistic evolution of a differentially rotating polytrope with toroidal shape. We find that this polytrope is unstable to nonaxisymmetric modes, which leads to a fragmentation into self-gravitating, collapsing components. In the case of one such fragment, we apply a simplified adaptive mesh refinement technique to follow the evolution to the formation of an apparent horizon centered on the fragment. This is the first study of the one-armed instability in full general relativity.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2005

Horizon Pretracking

We introduce horizon pretracking as a method for analysing numerically generated spacetimes of merging black holes. Pretracking consists of following certain modified constant expansion surfaces during a simulation before a common apparent horizon has formed. The tracked surfaces exist at all times, and are defined so as to include the common apparent horizon if it exists. The method provides a way for finding this common apparent horizon in an efficient and reliable manner at the earliest possible time. We can distinguish inner and outer horizons by examining the distortion of the surface. Properties of the pretracking surface such as its expansion, location, shape, area, and angular momentum can also be used to predict when a common apparent horizon will appear, and its characteristics. The latter could also be used to feed back into the simulation by adapting e.g. boundary or gauge conditions even before the common apparent horizon has formed.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2004

Gauge fixing for the simulation of black hole spacetimes

I consider the initial-boundary-value-problem of nonlinear general relativistic vacuum spacetimes, which today cannot yet be evolved numerically in a satisfactory manner. Specifically, I look at gauge conditions, classifying them into gauge evolution conditions and gauge fixing conditions. In this terminology, a gauge fixing condition is a condition that removes all gauge degrees of freedom from a system, whereas a gauge evolution condition determines only the time evolution of the gauge condition, while the gauge condition itself remains unspecified. I find that most of today's gauge conditions are only gauge evolution conditions. I present a system of evolution equations containing a gauge fixing condition, and describe an efficient numerical implementation using constrained evolution. I examine the numerical behaviour of this system for several test problems, such as linear gravitational waves or nonlinear gauge waves. I find that the system is robustly stable and second-order convergent. I then apply it to more realistic configurations, such as Brill waves or single black holes, where the system is also stable and accurate.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2004

Evolutions in 3D numerical relativity using fixed mesh refinement

We present results of 3D numerical simulations using a finite difference code featuring fixed mesh refinement (FMR), in which a subset of the computational domain is refined in space and time. We apply this code to a series of test cases including a robust stability test, a nonlinear gauge wave and an excised Schwarzschild black hole in an evolving gauge. We find that the mesh refinement results are comparable in accuracy, stability and convergence to unigrid simulations with the same effective resolution. At the same time, the use of FMR reduces the computational resources needed to obtain a given accuracy. Particular care must be taken at the interfaces between coarse and fine grids to avoid a loss of convergence at higher resolutions, and we introduce the use of "buffer zones" as one resolution of this issue. We also introduce a new method for initial data generation, which enables higher-order interpolation in time even from the initial time slice. This FMR system, "Carpet", is a driver module in the freely available Cactus computational infrastructure, and is able to endow generic existing Cactus simulation modules ("thorns") with FMR with little or no extra effort.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2003

A modified SPH approach for fluids with large density differences

We introduce a modified SPH approach that is based on discretising the particle density instead of the mass density. This approach makes it possible to use SPH particles with very different masses to simulate multi-phase flows with large differences in mass density between the phases. We test our formulation with a simple advection problem, with sound waves encountering a density discontinuity, and with shock tubes containing a contact discontinuity between air and Diesel oil. For all examined problems where particles have different masses, the new formulation yields better results than standard SPH. This is also the case for problems in which different spatial resolutions are needed while the mass density does not change.

physics.comp-ph↗

arXiv2003

Finding apparent horizons and other two-surfaces of constant expansion

Apparent horizons are structures of spacelike hypersurfaces that can be determined locally in time. Closed surfaces of constant expansion (CE surfaces) are a generalisation of apparent horizons. I present an efficient method for locating CE surfaces. This method uses an explicit representation of the surface, allowing for arbitrary resolutions and, in principle, shapes. The CE surface equation is then solved as a nonlinear elliptic equation. It is reasonable to assume that CE surfaces foliate a spacelike hypersurface outside of some interior region, thus defining an invariant (but still slicing-dependent) radial coordinate. This can be used to determine gauge modes and to compare time evolutions with different gauge conditions. CE surfaces also provide an efficient way to find new apparent horizons as they appear e.g. in binary black hole simulations.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2003

Toward standard testbeds for numerical relativity

In recent years, many different numerical evolution schemes for Einstein's equations have been proposed to address stability and accuracy problems that have plagued the numerical relativity community for decades. Some of these approaches have been tested on different spacetimes, and conclusions have been drawn based on these tests. However, differences in results originate from many sources, including not only formulations of the equations, but also gauges, boundary conditions, numerical methods, and so on. We propose to build up a suite of standardized testbeds for comparing approaches to the numerical evolution of Einstein's equations that are designed to both probe their strengths and weaknesses and to separate out different effects, and their causes, seen in the results. We discuss general design principles of suitable testbeds, and we present an initial round of simple tests with periodic boundary conditions. This is a pivotal first step toward building a suite of testbeds to serve the numerical relativists and researchers from related fields who wish to assess the capabilities of numerical relativity codes. We present some examples of how these tests can be quite effective in revealing various limitations of different approaches, and illustrating their differences. The tests are presently limited to vacuum spacetimes, can be run on modest computational resources, and can be used with many different approaches used in the relativity community.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2002

A fast apparent horizon algorithm

I present a fast algorithm to find apparent horizons. This algorithm uses an explicit representation of the horizon surface, allowing for arbitrary horizon resolutions and, in principle, shapes. Novel in this approach is that the tensor quantities describing the horizon live directly on the horizon surface, yet are represented using Cartesian coordinate components. This eliminates coordinate singularities, and leads to an efficient implementation. The apparent horizon equation is then solved as a nonlinear elliptic equation with standard methods. I explain in detail the coordinate systems used to store and represent the tensor components of the intermediate quantities, and describe the grid boundary conditions and the treatment of the polar coordinate singularities. Last I give as examples apparent horizons for single and multiple black hole configurations.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2001

A cure for unstable numerical evolutions of single black holes: adjusting the standard ADM equations

Numerical codes based on a direct implementation of the standard ADM formulation of Einstein's equations have generally failed to provide long-term stable and convergent evolutions of black hole spacetimes when excision is used to remove the singularities. We show that, for the case of a single black hole in spherical symmetry, it is possible to circumvent these problems by adding to the evolution equations terms involving the constraints, thus adjusting the standard ADM system. We investigate the effect that the choice of the lapse and shift has on the stability properties of numerical simulations and thus on the form of the added constraint term. To facilitate this task, we introduce the concept of quasi well-posedness, a version of well-posedness suitable for ADM-like systems involving second-order spatial derivatives.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2000

Grazing Collisions of Black Holes via the Excision of Singularities

We present the first simulations of non-headon (grazing) collisions of binary black holes in which the black hole singularities have been excised from the computational domain. Initially two equal mass black holes $m$ are separated a distance $\approx10m$ and with impact parameter $\approx2m$. Initial data are based on superposed, boosted (velocity $\approx0.5c$) solutions of single black holes in Kerr-Schild coordinates. Both rotating and non-rotating black holes are considered. The excised regions containing the singularities are specified by following the dynamics of apparent horizons. Evolutions of up to $t \approx 35m$ are obtained in which two initially separate apparent horizons are present for $t\approx3.8m$. At that time a single enveloping apparent horizon forms, indicating that the holes have merged. Apparent horizon area estimates suggest gravitational radiation of about 2.6% of the total mass. The evolutions end after a moderate amount of time because of instabilities.

gr-qc↗