MULTIGRAIN: a smoothed particle hydrodynamic algorithm for multiple small dust grains and gas

Mark Hutchison , Daniel J. Price , Guillaume Laibe (1)

1 CRAL - Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon

We present a new algorithm, MULTIGRAIN, for modelling the dynamics of an entire population of small dust grains immersed in gas, typical of conditions that are found in molecular clouds and protoplanetary discs. The MULTIGRAIN method is more accurate than single-phase simulations because the gas experiences a backreaction from each dust phase and communicates this change to the other phases, thereby indirectly coupling the dust phases together. The MULTIGRAIN method is fast, explicit and low storage, requiring only an array of dust fractions and their derivatives defined for each resolution element.

Keywords: hydrodynamics; methods: numerical; protoplanetary discs; dust; extinction; ISM: kinematics and dynamics; Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics; Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Astrophysics [astro-ph]

Mark Hutchison, Daniel J. Price, Guillaume Laibe. MULTIGRAIN: a smoothed particle hydrodynamic algorithm for multiple small dust grains and gas. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2018, 476, pp.2186-2198. ⟨10.1093/mnras/sty367⟩. ⟨insu-03711228⟩