A new hydrodynamics code for Type Ia supernovae

Abstract

A two-dimensional hydrodynamics code for Type Ia supernova (SNIa) simulations is presented. The code includes a fifth-order shock-capturing scheme WENO, detailed nuclear reaction network, flame-capturing scheme and sub-grid turbulence. For post-processing, we have developed a tracer particle scheme to record the thermodynamical history of the fluid elements. We also present a one-dimensional radiative transfer code for computing observational signals. The code solves the Lagrangian hydrodynamics and moment-integrated radiative transfer equations. A local ionization scheme and composition dependent opacity are included. Various verification tests are presented, including standard benchmark tests in one and two dimensions. SNIa models using the pure turbulent deflagration model and the delayed-detonation transition model are studied. The results are consistent with those in the literature. We compute the detailed chemical evolution using the tracer particles’ histories, and we construct corresponding bolometric light curves from the hydrodynamics results. We also use a GPU to speed up the computation of some highly repetitive subroutines. We achieve an acceleration of 50 times for some subroutines and a factor of 6 in the global run time.