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| Paper: |
The Athena MHD Code: Extensions, Applications, and Comparisons to ZEUS |
| Volume: |
406, Numerical Modeling of Space Plasma Flows: ASTRONUM - 2008 |
| Page: |
277 |
| Authors: |
Stone, J.M. |
| Abstract: |
Athena is a new grid-based code for compressible magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) based on higher-order Godunov methods. This paper describes recent extensions to the basic algorithms in the code motivated by two applications: (1) the magnetorotational instability (MRI) in the local shearing box, and (2) gravitational fragmentation in supersonic turbulence. We describe recent results for both problems, including shearing box simulations of the MRI in large domains (up to 32H × 32H × H, where H is the scale height in the disk), and simulations of driven and decaying MHD turbulence at numerical resolutions up to 10243. We compare solutions previously computed using the ZEUS code with new results from Athena for both applications. Both codes converge to the same solution as measured by globally averaged quantities; for example the decay rate of supersonic MHD turbulence is the same. This, combined with the recent demonstration that the ZEUS code gives the correct solution to all of the one-dimensional test problems in Falle (2002), suggests that ZEUS is reliable for astrophysical MHD. |
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