High order numerical simulations of the Richtmyer– Meshkov instability in a relativistic fluid

Abstract

We study the Richtmyer–Meshkov (RM) instability of a relativistic perfect fluid by means of high order numerical simulations with adaptive mesh refinement (AMR). The numerical scheme combines a finite volume reconstruction in space, a local space-time discontinuous Galerkin predictor method, a high order one-step time update scheme, and a “cell-by-cell” space-time AMR strategy with time-accurate local time stepping. In this way, third order accurate (both in space and in time) numerical simulations of the RM instability are performed, spanning a wide parameter space. We present results both for the case in which a light fluid penetrates into a higher density one (Atwood number A > 0) and for the case in which a heavy fluid penetrates into a lower density one (Atwood number A < 0). We find that for large Lorentz factors γs of the incident shock wave, the relativistic RM instability is substantially weakened and ultimately suppressed. More specifically, the growth rate of the RM instability in the linear phase has a local maximum which occurs at a critical value of γs ≈ [1.2, 2]. Moreover, we have also revealed a genuinely relativistic effect, absent in Newtonian hydrodynamics, which arises in three dimensional configurations with a non-zero velocity component tangent to the incident shock front. In particular, in A > 0 models, the tangential velocity has a net magnification effect, while in A < 0 models, the tangential velocity has a net suppression effect.