ADAPTIVE-GRID RADIATION HYDRODYNAMICS WITH TITAN

We have developed a code which solves the coupled sets of radiation tr ansfer and fluid dynamics equations (time dependent in one spatial dim ension) by employing a fully implicit adaptive grid procedure to detec t, resolve, and track the relevant physical structures. We have formul ated TITAN as a general purpose code, written it in a user friendly ma nner, and documented it in detail. This code is available to the (astr ophysical) community for the application to a broad variety of computa tional problems both as a research and a teaching tool. We demonstrate the code's power and versatility in a series of simple problems. They range from pure hydrodynamics tests (shock tubes and blast waves), vi a radiation transfer tests (radiative heating and cooling), to radiati on hydrodynamics tests (radiative shocks and blast waves). These can b e viewed as predecessors to a host of interesting astrophysical proble ms such as nova and supernova explosions and light curves, accretion o nto compact objects, star formation, and stellar variability.