Athena Applications Page

This page contains links to recent refereed papers that have described results computed using Athena. The links are to papers on astro-ph, since that archive is free to all.

Three Dimensional Compressible Hydrodynamic Simulations of Vortices in Disks by Y. Shen, J. Stone, & T. Gardiner, ApJ 653, 513 (2006). The image shows the component of the specific vorticity in the vertical direction from a three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulation of the evolution of an initially random vorticity field in a Keplerian shear flow. In 3D the vorticity and kinetic enerrgy quickly die away.

Effect of the Coriolis Force on the Hydrodynamics of Colliding Wind Binaries by N. Lemaster, J. Stone, & T. Gardiner, ApJ 662, 582 (2007). Shock structure in the colliding winds from two identical stars on circular orbits, with the orbital velocity 40% of the stellar wind velocity. Small spheres mark the location of the stars. The stars are moving counter-clockwise in the x-y plane.

Saturation of the Magnetothermal Instability in Three Dimensions by I. Parrish, & J. Stone, ApJ 664, 135 (2007). Nonlinear Evolution of the Magnetothermal Instability in Two Dimensions by I. Parrish, & J. Stone, ApJ, 633, 334 (2005) Magnetic energy density along the faces of the computational volume in a three-dimensional simulation of the MTI in a plane-parallel stratified atmosphere. Magnetic field amplification by vertical convective motion is clearly evident. The MTI is driven by anisotropic conduction along magnetic field lines in a weakly collisional plasma, destabilizing atmospheres with entropy profiles that are stably-stratified in the abscence of conduction.

Nonlinear Evolution of the Magnetohydrodynamic Rayleigh-Taylor Instability by J. Stone & T. Gardiner, Phys. of Fluids, 19, 4104 (2007). The Magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor Instability in Three Dimensions by J. Stone & T. Gardiner, ApJ 671, 1726 (2007) Isosurfaces of the the density showing surfaces of the heavy (red) and light (blue) fluids, as well as color slices of the density along the edges of the computational domain, at late time in the hydrodynamic RT instability (top) and strongly magnetized RT instability (bottom). In the MHD case, the magnetic field is initially parallel to the x-axis. The MHD flow shows much less fine scale structure than the hydro run, due to suppression of modes parallel to B. Nonetheless, the interface is still strongly unstable. Click here for movie of hydro RT (15 MB gif file). Click here for movie of MHD RTI (12 MB gif file).

The Magnetohydrodynamics of Shock-Cloud Interaction in Three Dimensions by M.-S. Shin, J. Stone, & G. Snyder, ApJ in press (2008). Volumetric renderings of the density (left column) and magnetic energy (right column) after a Mach 10 shock interacts with a spherical magnetized cloud. The top row shows the case in which the magnetic field is parallel to the direction of shock propagation, the middle row shows the case in which it is oblique (at 45 degrees), and the bottom row shows the case in which it is perpendicular. In all cases the ratio of the initial gas to magnetic pressure is ten.