Search

We model hydrodynamic interactions of an old supernova remnant shock wave with a small interstellar gas cloud, taking into account the effects of thermal conduction and radiative losses. In particular, we consider a representative case of a Mach 30 shock impacting on an isolated cloud with density contrast χ = 10 with respect to the ambient medium. Thermal conduction appears to be effective in suppressing the Kelvin-Helmholtz and Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities which would develop at the cloud boundaries. We demonstrate that the radiative losses play a crucial role in the dynamics of the shock-cloud interaction, dominating evolution of the shocked cloud medium. © 2004 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the results of a simulation of a wind-driven non-linear gravity wave breaking on the surface of a white dwarf. The "wind" consists of H/He from an accreted envelope, and the simulation demonstrates that this breaking wave mechanism can produce a well-mixed layer of H/He with C/O from the white dwarf above the surface. Material from this mixed layer may then be transported throughout the accreted envelope by convection, which would enrich the C/O abundance of the envelope as is expected from observations of novae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recently proposed mechanism of acceleration of highest energy cosmic rays by polarization electric fields arising in plasmoids injected into neutron star magnetospheres is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present direct numerical simulations of mixing at Rayleigh-Taylor unstable interfaces performed with the FLASH code, developed at the ASCI/Alliances Center for Astrophysical Thermonuclear Flashes at the University of Chicago. We present initial results of single-mode studies in two and three dimensions. Our results indicate that three-dimensional instabilities grow significantly faster than two-dimensional instabilities and that grid resolution can have a significant effect on instability growth rates. We also find that unphysical diffusive mixing occurs at the fluid interface, particularly in poorly resolved simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We show direct numerical simulations of flame-vortex interactions in order to understand quenching of thermonuclear flames. The key question is -- can a thermonuclear flame be quenched? If not, the deflagration-detonation transition mechanisms that demand a finely tuned preconditioned region in the interior of a white dwarf are unlikely to work. In these simulations, we pass a steady-state laminar flame through a vortex pair. The vortex pair represents the most severe strain the flame front will encounter inside the white dwarf. We perform a parameter study, varying the speed and size of the vortex pair, in order to understand the quenching process. No quenching is observed in any of the calculations performed to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Flash code was developed at the University of Chicago as part of the Department of Energy’s Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI). The code was designed specifically to simulate thermonuclear flashes in compact stars (white dwarfs and neutron stars). This paper will give a brief introduction to the astrophysics problems we wish to address, followed by a description of the current version of the Flash code. Finally, we discuss two simulations of astrophysical detonations that we have carried out with the code. The first is of a helium detonation in an X-ray burst. The other simulation models a carbon detonation in a Type Ia supernova explosion. © 2001 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We discuss some of the computational challenges encountered in simulating the evolution of clusters of galaxies. Eulerian adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) techniques can successfully address these challenges but are currently being used by only a few groups. We describe our publicly available AMR code, FLASH, which uses an object-oriented framework to manage its AMR library, physics modules, and automated verification. We outline the development of the FLASH framework to include collisionless particles, permitting it to be used for cluster simulation. © 2001 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]