Kinetic schemes for the ultra-relativistic Euler equations

We present a kinetic numerical scheme for the relativistic Euler equations, which describe the flow of a perfect fluid in terms of the particle density n, the spatial part of the four-velocity u and the pressure p. The kinetic approach is very simple in the ultra-relativistic limit, but may also be applied to more general cases. The basic ingredients of the kinetic scheme are the phase-density in equilibrium and the free flight. The phase-density generalizes the non-relativistic Maxwellian for a gas in local equilibrium. The free flight is given by solutions of a collision free kinetic transport equation. The scheme presented here is an explicit method and unconditionally stable. We establish that the conservation laws of mass, momentum and energy as well as the entropy inequality are everywhere exactly satisfied by the solution of the kinetic scheme. For that reason we obtain weak admissible Euler solutions including arbitrarily complicated shock interactions. In the numerical case studies the results obtained from the kinetic scheme are compared with the first order upwind and centered schemes. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.