Smoothed particle hydrodynamics applied to relativistic spherical collapse (Q1261376)

The smoothed particle hydrodynamics method is extended to relativistic, self-gravitating spherical collapse and compared directly with an equivalent finite element method code. The particle code uses smoothed particle hydrodynamics for the fluid and approximates the gravitational potentials with finite elements. The finite element code uses a similar potential solver, but it evolves fluid quantities with finite elements. The direct particle method was unstable at the centre, the surface, and during the formation of horizons, but a Galerkin weighted residual technique successfully solved all these instabilities.