Gravitational Physics
Multiscale modelling of neutron star oceans
Speaker: Alice Harpole (University of Southampton)
Date: Friday 24 March 2017
Time: 11.15
Venue: Committee room (N/0.12)
Type I X-ray bursts are thermonuclear explosions which occur on the surfaces of neutron stars. The physics of these explosions spans a wide range of scales: the burning itself is confined to a thin flame front, several centimetres thick, while the propagation of this burning front is driven by the Coriolis force which acts on the order of kilometres. This makes modelling the bursts quite challenging. In our work, a multiscale model is used, with the large scale physics described using the relativistic shallow water equations, the intermediate scale described by the compressible relativistic fluid equations and the smallest scale described by the relativistic low Mach number equations. The different scales are coupled together using mesh refinement methods, allowing us to capture the relevant physics at the different scales whilst keeping the problem feasible numerically and produce the first whole neutron star ocean model.