A subluminal relativistic magnetohydrodynamics scheme with ADER-WENO predictor and multidimensional Riemann solver-based corrector

Abstract

The relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (RMHD) set of equations has recently seen increased use in astrophysical computations. Even so, RMHD codes remain fragile. The reconstruction can sometimes yield superluminal velocities in certain parts of the mesh. In this paper we present a reconstruction strategy that overcomes this problem by making a single conservative to primitive transformation per cell followed by higher order WENO reconstruction on a carefully chosen set of primitives that guarantee subluminal reconstruction of the flow variables. For temporal evolution via a predictor step we also present second, third and fourth order accurate ADER methods that keep the velocity subluminal during the predictor step. The RMHD system also requires the magnetic field to be evolved in a divergence-free fashion. In the treatment of classical numerical MHD the analogous issue has seen much recent progress with the advent of multidimensional Riemann solvers. By developing multidimensional Riemann solvers for RMHD, we show that similar advances extend to RMHD. As a result, the face-centered magnetic fields can be evolved much more accurately using the edge-centered electric fields in the corrector step. Those edge-centered electric fields come from a multidimensional Riemann solver for RMHD which we present in this paper. In this paper we also develop several new test problems for RMHD. We show that RMHD vortices can be designed that propagate on the computational mesh as self-preserving structures. These RMHD vortex test problems provide a means to do truly multidimensional accuracy testing for RMHD codes. Several other stringent test problems are presented. We show the importance of resolution in certain test problems. Our tests include a demonstration that RMHD vortices are stable when they interact with shocks.