Particle Mesh Hydrodynamics for Astrophysics Simulations

We present a particle method for the simulation of three dimensional compressible hydrodynamics based on a hybrid Particle-Mesh discretization of the governing equations. The method is rooted on the regularization of particle locations as in remeshed Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (rSPH). The rSPH method was recently introduced to remedy problems associated with the distortion of computational elements in SPH, by periodically re-initializing the particle positions and by using high order interpolation kernels. In the PMH formulation, the particles solely handle the convective part of the compressible Euler equations. The particle quantities are then interpolated onto a mesh, where the pressure terms are computed. PMH, like SPH, is free of the convection CFL condition while at the same time it is more efficient as derivatives are computed on a mesh rather than particle-particle interactions. PMH does not detract from the adaptive character of SPH and allows for control of its accuracy. We present simulations of a benchmark astrophysics problem demonstrating the capabilities of this approach.