Boundary value problems in magnetohydrodynamics (and fluid dynamics). I - Radiation boundary condition

Abstract

In view of the difficulties that emerge in numerical simulations of time-dependent phenomena involving MHD waves due to waves' artificial reflection at numerical boundaries, where time-dependent magnetic fields outside those boundaries are unknown, a method previously developed for the determination of radiative boundary conditions is generalized for the treatment of isothermal MHD waves. The illustrative problem thus treated is that of the magnetic braking of a rigidly rotating disk which is embedded in a differentially-rotating fluid. The analytic results obtained are compared with those from numerical simulations with and without the present boundary treatment.