Yossi Farjoun

Yossi Farjoun, Benjamin Seibold

A particle scheme for scalar conservation laws in one space dimension is presented. Particles representing the solution are moved according to their characteristic velocities. Particle interaction is resolved locally, satisfying exact conservation of area. Shocks stay sharp and propagate at correct speeds, while rarefaction waves are created where appropriate. The method is variation diminishing, entropy decreasing, exactly conservative, and has no numerical dissipation away from shocks. Solutions, including the location of shocks, are approximated with second order accuracy. Source terms can be included. The method is compared to CLAWPACK in various examples, and found to yield a comparable or better accuracy for similar resolutions.

Yossi Farjoun, Benjamin Seibold

We present a meshfree numerical solver for scalar conservation laws in one space dimension. Points representing the solution are moved according to their characteristic velocities. Particle interaction is resolved by purely local particle management. Since no global remeshing is required, shocks stay sharp and propagate at the correct speed, while rarefaction waves are created where appropriate. The method is TVD, entropy decreasing, exactly conservative, and has no numerical dissipation. Difficulties involving transonic points do not occur, however inflection points of the flux function pose a slight challenge, which can be overcome by a special treatment. Away from shocks the method is second order accurate, while shocks are resolved with first order accuracy. A postprocessing step can recover the second order accuracy. The method is compared to CLAWPACK in test cases and is found to yield an increase in accuracy for comparable resolutions.

Yossi Farjoun, Benjamin Seibold

We present a numerical method for scalar conservation laws in one space dimension. The solution is approximated by local similarity solutions. While many commonly used approaches are based on shocks, the presented method uses rarefaction and compression waves. The solution is represented by particles that carry function values and move according to the method of characteristics. Between two neighboring particles, an interpolation is defined by an analytical similarity solution of the conservation law. An interaction of particles represents a collision of characteristics. The resulting shock is resolved by merging particles so that the total area under the function is conserved. The method is variation diminishing, nevertheless, it has no numerical dissipation away from shocks. Although shocks are not explicitly tracked, they can be located accurately. We present numerical examples, and outline specific applications and extensions of the approach.

Richard Ehrenborg, Yossi Farjoun

We define the Euler number of a bipartite graph on $n$ vertices to be the number of labelings of the vertices with $1,2,...,n$ such that the vertices alternate in being local maxima and local minima. We reformulate the problem of computing the Euler number of certain subgraphs of the Cartesian product of a graph $G$ with the path $P_m$ in terms of self adjoint operators. The asymptotic expansion of the Euler number is given in terms of the eigenvalues of the associated operator. For two classes of graphs, the comb graphs and the Cartesian product $P_2 \Box P_m$, we numerically solve the eigenvalue problem.

Yossi Farjoun, Benjamin Seibold

A characteristic particle method for the simulation of first order macroscopic traffic models on road networks is presented. The approach is based on the method "particleclaw", which solves scalar one dimensional hyperbolic conservations laws exactly, except for a small error right around shocks. The method is generalized to nonlinear network flows, where particle approximations on the edges are suitably coupled together at the network nodes. It is demonstrated in numerical examples that the resulting particle method can approximate traffic jams accurately, while only devoting a few degrees of freedom to each edge of the network.

Benjamin Seibold, Yossi Farjoun

Commissioned by MIT's in-house artist Jane Philbrick, we evolve an abstract 2D surface (resembling Marta Pan's 1961 "Sculpture Flottante I") under mean curvature, all the while calculating the eigenmodes and eigenvalues of the Laplace-Beltrami operator on the resulting shapes. These are then synthesized into a sound-wave embodying the "swan song" of the surfaces as the evolve to points and vanish. The surface is approximated by a triangulation, and we present a robust approach to approximate the normal directions and the mean curvature. The resulting video and sound-track were parts in the Jane Philbrick's exhibition "Everything Trembles" in Lund, Sweden, 2009.

Yossi Farjoun, Benjamin Seibold

An "exact" method for scalar one-dimensional hyperbolic conservation laws is presented. The approach is based on the evolution of shock particles, separated by local similarity solutions. The numerical solution is defined everywhere, and is as accurate as the applied ODE solver. Furthermore, the method is extended to stiff balance laws. A special correction approach yields a method that evolves detonation waves at correct velocities, without resolving their internal dynamics. The particle approach is compared to a classical finite volume method in terms of numerical accuracy, both for conservation laws and for an application in reaction kinetics.