Fast and accurate frequency-dependent radiation transport for hydrodynamics simulations in massive star formation

¹ Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Abt. Planeten- und Sternentstehung, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany e-mail: kuiper@mpia.de
² Fellow of the International Max-Planck Research School for Astronomy and Cosmic Physics at the University of Heidelberg (IMPRS-HD), Germany
³ Universität Tübingen, Institut für Astronomie und Astrophysik, Abt. Computational Physics, Auf der Morgenstelle 10, 72076 Tübingen, Germany

Received: 20 April 2009
Accepted: 15 December 2009

Abstract

Context. Radiative feedback plays a crucial role in the formation of massive stars. The implementation of a fast and accurate description of the proceeding thermodynamics in pre-stellar cores and evolving accretion disks is therefore a main effort in current hydrodynamics simulations.

Aims. We introduce our newly implemented three-dimensional frequency dependent radiation transport algorithm for hydrodynamics simulations of spatial configurations with a dominant central source.

Methods. The module combines the advantage of the speed of an approximate flux limited diffusion (FLD) solver in the one-temperature approach, which is valid in the static diffusion limit, with the high accuracy of a frequency dependent first order ray-tracing routine. The ray-tracing routine especially compensates the introduced inaccuracies by standard approximate FLD solvers in transition regions from optically thin to thick and yields the correct optical depths for the frequency dependent stellar irradiation. Both components of our module make use of realistic tabulated dust opacities. The module is parallelized for distributed memory machines based on the message passing interface standard. We implemented the module in the three-dimensional high-order magneto-hydrodynamics code Pluto.

Results. We prove the viability of the scheme in a standard radiation benchmark test compared to a full frequency dependent Monte-Carlo based radiative transfer code. The setup includes a central star, a circumstellar flared disk, as well as an envelope. The test is performed for different optical depths. Considering the frequency dependence of the stellar irradiation, the temperature distributions can be described precisely in the optically thin, thick, and irradiated transition regions. Resulting radiative forces onto dust grains are reproduced with high accuracy. The achievable parallel speedup of the method imposes no restriction on further radiative (magneto-) hydrodynamics simulations.

Conclusions. The proposed approximate radiation transport method enables frequency dependent radiation hydrodynamics studies of the evolution of pre-stellar cores and circumstellar accretion disks around an evolving massive star in a highly efficient and accurate manner.