Numerical Simulation of Astrophysical Processes

Start year
2003
Organizational Unit

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    General
    Description

    Numerical simulation through complex computer codes has been a fundamental tool in physics and technology research for decades. The rapid growth of computing capabilities, coupled with significant advances in numerical mathematics, has made this branch of research accessible to medium-sized research centers, bridging the gap between theoretical and experimental physics. Astrophysics is no exception to this trend. Since the late 1970s, a specialized field known as computational astrophysics has emerged, allowing us to understand a wide range of phenomena that were previously inaccessible to pure theoretical research and to account for previously unexplained observations.

    In recent decades, its primary areas of application have included (magneto)hydrodynamic phenomena and gas dynamics in various cosmic environments. For example, this includes the interiors and atmospheres of stars and planets, the interstellar medium, including magnetohydrodynamics and dynamos, accretion disks, the evolution of planetary nebulae, supernova explosions and remnants, and more. The incorporation of radiative transport equations into numerical simulations, which occurred in past decades, has added greater realism to the study of hydrodynamic processes in stellar photospheres and chromospheres.

    The current project aims to support the development of astrophysical research at the IAC based on the use of large numerical codes that require massively parallel computers and their connection with observational results. The general objective of this project is to perform calculations related to cosmic fluid dynamics and radiative transport. The topics of these calculations will focus on:

    1. Magnetized gas dynamics in the interiors and atmospheres of stars.
    2. Radiation transport and polarization signals in spectral lines based on realistic atomic and molecular models, including Hanle and Zeeman effects.
    3. Comparing theoretical/numerical results with observational data.

    This project is particularly relevant given the increasing involvement of the IAC in national and European supercomputing networks and, more generally, in large-scale supercomputer installation initiatives.

    Principal investigator

    In the following, we highlight the results of our annual year-end summary.

    Throughout the year 2022, partial ionization effects, nonequilibrium ionization effects, and multi-fluids have been one the main blocks of development both from the theoretical and numerical perspective. For instance, a generalization of the the Braginskii 1965 equations has been achieved for a general multi-species plasmas with arbitrary masses and temperatures, and where all of the viscosities and heat fluxes in the model are described by their own evolution equations. This new approach has a crucial advantage that the parallel components along the magnetic field lines do not become unbounded (infinitely large) in regimes of low-collisionallity of interest for this group as, for example, the solar corona (Hunana et al. 2022).  In this thematic block, 2D and 3D simulations, using a two-fluid model that treats the neutral and ionized species as two separate components, have also been performed to analyze the effect that the collisional interaction between both components has on the dynamics of coronal rain, the evolution of the instability of Kelvin-Helmholtz, the propagation of magneto-acoustic waves through the solar chromosphere or the heating of the plasma (Martínez-Gómez et al. 2022a). Another example of the theoretical development with potential numerical applications has been the pursuit of the effects of the ambipolar diffusion in the chromosphere from a more fundamental perspective by means of analytical solutions. The obtained solutions for cases with cylindrical symmetry are shown to constitute a demanding, but nonetheless viable, test for magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) codes that incorporate ambipolar diffusion. In addition, detailed tabulated runs of the solutions have been made available public for the community (Moreno-Insertis et al. 2022).  Lastly, nonequilibrium ionization effects of the Hydrogen atom together with the study of the Lyman α effects have been started to study in simple configurations to be applied later in realistic simulations that include the chromosphere.

     

    Improving and testing the capabilities of the available MHD codes in the solar group has been another of the major key developments carried out in 2022. For example, the results obtained by Moreno-Insertis et al. 2022 were used to check that the MHD Bifrost code is able to reproduce the theoretical solutions with sufficient accuracy up to very advanced diffusive times, as well as to explore the asymptotic properties of these theoretical solutions. In addition to that, several changes have been performed in the MANCHA code whose aim was to increase the efficiency and to add new features that will allow the researchers to perform more realistic experiments as well as exploring new research areas. For instance, MANCHA code has been extended to be able to simulate solar simulations up to the corona, adding a new module that efficiently calculates one of the key ingredients in the corona: the thermal conduction (Navarro et al. 2022). The preparation of the MANCHA code for its multi-fluid extension with radiation has also been another working branch concerning the numerical development in 2022. In addition, new equation-of-state and opacity routines have been developed that allow separating the equilibrium background contributions from those treated out of the equilibrium. Besides facing different challenges in solar physics, the huge development brought about in MANCHA is useful to study main sequence cool stars (G,K,M), which contributes to the better understanding of the stellar physics. To accomplish all these tasks, it was necessary not only to carry out numerous scaling tests and numerical experiments in local machines at the IAC, as well as on Supercomputers such as LaPalma, PICASSO, PizDaint, and MareNostrum4; but also to work together with external collaborators.

     

    During 2022, in this project there has also been a focus on different solar atmosphere phenomena and the corresponding comparison with observations. As an illustrative example, Coronal Bright Points (CBPs) have been modeled for the first time with enough realism to unravel the mechanisms that generate them and provide them with energy, being also able to explain different characteristics observed from space satellites. The comparison with observations is through synthetic SDO/AIA, Solar Orbiter EUI-HRI, and IRIS images that have been computed from the numerical experiment performed with the Bifrost code (Nóbrega-Siverio and Moreno-Insertis, 2022). Another example is the combination of 3D numerical experiments with the MoLMH code and forward modelling using Hα line to study transverse kink oscillations in prominence threads. The results contain relevant implications for the field of prominence seismology, showing that the Hα emission can be used to detect the fundamental mode of the oscillations (Martínez-Gómez et al. 2022b). In addition, ground high-resolution observations of ejective phenomena such as surges in the solar atmosphere have been analyzed, finding striking similarities with results obtained from numerical experiments. On top of that, there have also been significant contributions from the members of this project to the further advance of the observations and construction of new telescopes (Quintero et al. 2022) and satellites (De Pontieu et al. 2022, Cheung et al. 2022), using the earned knowledge from the theoretical-numerical experiments. Finally, an exploratory first attempt at understanding the physics of coronal holes and active regions from a global point of view through 2D magnetohydrostatic solutions was performed (Terradas et al. 2022), which will need of further development in the incoming years for comparisons with observations.

     

    Last but not least, state-of-the-art tools such as the ones provided by Machine Learning and Bayesian statistics have been applied to solar atmosphere problems. In this vein, a project to characterize the limits of the k-means methods and its application to solar observations was launched. In addition, new development in radiative transfer codes have being started to use in a preliminary study of machine learning approach to the computations of radiative terms. Development of the application of Bayesian techniques to the comparison of models in seismology of the solar atmosphere continued in 2022, with a review article published that accounts for the main results obtained in the last decade (Arregui 2022a). Moreover, the Bayesian formalism has been successfully applied to the prediction of the amplitude of the solar activity cycle, proposing a new methodology to quantify the goodness of both the prediction and the underlying model (Arregui 2022b).

    Related publications

    Newly formed downflow lanes in exploding granules in the solar photosphere 2021A&A...653A..96E
    Two-fluid simulations of Rayleigh-Taylor instability in a magnetized solar prominence thread. II. Effects of collisionality 2021A&A...650A.181P
    Bayesian Evidence for a Nonlinear Damping Model for Coronal Loop Oscillations 2021ApJ...915L..25A
    Chromospheric Heating by Magnetohydrodynamic Waves and Instabilities 2021JGRA..12629097S
    Simulations of the Biermann battery mechanism in two-fluid partially ionised plasmas 2021A&A...650A.123M
    A New View of the Solar Interface Region from the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) 2021SoPh..296...84D
    Large-amplitude Prominence Oscillations following Impact by a Coronal Jet 2021ApJ...912...75L
    Critical Science Plan for the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) 2021SoPh..296...70R
    Acoustic-gravity wave propagation characteristics in three-dimensional radiation hydrodynamic simulations of the solar atmosphere 2021RSPTA.37900170F
    Influence of ambipolar and Hall effects on vorticity in three-dimensional simulations of magneto-convection 2021RSPTA.37900176K
    The chromospheric component of coronal bright points. Coronal and chromospheric responses to magnetic-flux emergence 2021A&A...646A.107M
    Stability Analysis for an Interface with a Continuous Internal Structure
    Accurately constraining velocity information from spectral imaging observations using machine learning techniques 2021RSPTA.37900171M
    Coronal Heating by MHD Waves 2020SSRv..216..140V
    Joint action of Hall and ambipolar effects in 3D magneto-convection simulations of the quiet Sun. I. Dissipation and generation of waves 2020A&A...642A.220G
    Resonant absorption: Transformation of compressive motions into vortical motions 2020A&A...641A.106G
    Quantifying the evidence for resonant damping of coronal waves with foot-point wave power asymmetry 2020A&A...640L..17M
    Case study of multi-temperature coronal jets for emerging flux MHD models 2020A&A...639A..22J
    Ambipolar diffusion in the Bifrost code 2020A&A...638A..79N
    Numerical simulations of large-amplitude oscillations in flux rope solar prominences 2020A&A...637A..75L
    Two-dimensional simulations of coronal rain dynamics. I. Model consisting of a vertical magnetic field and an unbounded atmosphere 2020A&A...634A..36M
    An introductory guide to fluid models with anisotropic temperatures. Part 1. CGL description and collisionless fluid hierarchy 2019JPlPh..85f2002H
    An introductory guide to fluid models with anisotropic temperatures. Part 2. Kinetic theory, Padé approximants and Landau fluid closures 2019JPlPh..85f2003H
    The Role of Asymmetries in Thermal Nonequilibrium 2019ApJ...884...68K
    Nonequilibrium ionization and ambipolar diffusion in solar magnetic flux emergence processes 2020A&A...633A..66N
    Two-fluid simulations of waves in the solar chromosphere. II. Propagation and damping of fast magneto-acoustic waves and shocks 2019A&A...630A..79P
    Origin of the chromospheric three-minute oscillations in sunspot umbrae 2019A&A...627A.169F
    Fundamental transverse vibrations of the active region solar corona 2019A&A...629A..20L
    Two-fluid simulations of waves in the solar chromosphere. I. Numerical code verification 2019A&A...627A..25P
    Exploration of long-period oscillations in an Hα prominence 2019A&A...623A.144Z
    Fast-to-Alfvén Mode Conversion Mediated by Hall Current. II. Application to the Solar Atmosphere 2019ApJ...870...94G
    Three-dimensional simulations of solar magneto-convection including effects of partial ionization 2018A&A...618A..87K
    Self-similar Approach for Rotating Magnetohydrodynamic Solar and Astrophysical Structures 2018ApJ...863..147L
    MHDSTS: a new explicit numerical scheme for simulations of partially ionised solar plasma 2018A&A...615A..67G
    Inversions of synthetic umbral flashes: Effects of scanning time on the inferred atmospheres 2018A&A...614A..73F
    Small-scale Magnetic Flux Emergence in the Quiet Sun 2018ApJ...859L..26M
    GONG Catalog of Solar Filament Oscillations Near Solar Maximum 2018ApJS..236...35L
    On the Importance of the Nonequilibrium Ionization of Si IV and O IV and the Line of Sight in Solar Surges 2018ApJ...858....8N
    Prominence oscillations 2018LRSP...15....3A
    Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities with sheared magnetic fields in partially ionised plasmas 2018A&A...609A..23R

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