Relativistic Fluid Dynamics

Fluid Dynamics with Wavelet Refinement

One challenge in relativistic fluid dynamics is that relativistic effects can compress shock widths, and velocities can approach the speed of light. Wavelet multi-resolution (WAMR) can be used to study this systems with greater efficiency.

One interesting problem is a blast wave of ejecta from a GRB that expands into the interstellar medium (ISM). The contact discontinuity can become unstable to the Rayleigh-Taylor instability. This figure shows the individual points used to calculate one such solution to this problem.

Blast Waves

Supernovae or gamma ray bursts can generate blast waves in the interstellar medium. The interstellar medium may be inhomogeneous from earlier mass outflows from the star. These simulations show the density of a blast waves hitting cold, dense mass shells show some possible interesting behavior. The collision between the shock and the cold shell generates an instability that grows dramatically.