CCA Seminar – James Guillochon Talk

“Simulations of the Tidal Disruptions of Stars by Supermassive Black Holes and their Computational Challenges”
Many simulations of tidal disruptions have been performed over the last two decades, and because of the wide range of timescales, physical scales, and complicated physics, these simulations have all taken shortcuts where the physical setup is altered relative to reality to make the simulations tractable. I’ll briefly present the current state of the art in tidal disruption simulations (both my own and that of others) and argue that magnetic fields and radiation transport are the two most important aspects to include in full-scale tidal disruption simulations of the future, with the effects of general relativity being considered only approximately. Afterwards, I’ll invite CCA members to discuss with me how best to make computational methods and outputs accessible in forms that are useful to astronomers, fellow simulators, and the public.