RELATIVISTIC HYDRODYNAMICS AND ESSENTIALLY NONOSCILLATORY SHOCK CAPTURING SCHEMES

Numerical solutions of relativistic hydrodynamic equations are obtained with essentially non-oscillatory (ENO) finite differencing schemes. The method is explicit, conservative, consistent with the entropy condition, and high-order accurate in space and time. The present implementation is applicable to the most general, three-dimensional problems with an arbitrary equation of state. Numerical experiments, including computations of multi-dimensional flows, demonstrate that the method delivers sharp, non-oscillatory shock transitions without sacrificing high resolution of the smooth regions. This extends results already established for the Euler gas dynamics to the relativistic regime, suggesting the usefulness of ENO schemes for modelling relativistic nuclear collisions. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.