Numerical Magnetohydrodynamics

Academic year 2025/2026
Lecturer Evangelia Ntormousi

Examination procedure

<p>Seminar</p>

Prerequisites

First year of PHD, possible also for advanced Masters students. Prerequisites: programming in python and/or fortran, c, c++

Syllabus

This course provides an advanced overview of the numerical methods used to model magnetized fluids, especially (although not exclusively) in the field of Astrophysics. It is primarily hands-on, requiring code development, ploting and analysis of the results.


Course Content:


  • Introduction to space plasmas: properties and characterization.
  • Guiding-center equations for moving charges in an electromagnetic field.
  • Introduction to the equations of MHD and their properties.
  • MHD waves.
  • Solving the MHD equations numerically: conserving schemes.
  • The Riemann problem.
  • Introduction to the RAMSES MHD code.
  • MHD instabilities: applications using the RAMSES code.
  • Blast waves: applications using the RAMSES code.
  • MHD turbulence: applications using the RAMSES code.

Bibliographical references

"Riemann Solvers and Numerical Methods for Fluid Dynamics", E. Toro