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Numerical relativity simulations of compact binaries: Comparison of cell- and vertex-centered adaptive meshes

Boris Daszuta1, William Cook1, Peter Hammond2, Jacob Fields2,3, Eduardo M. Gutiérrez2,3, Sebastiano Bernuzzi1, and David Radice2,3,4

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Phys. Rev. D 112, 103006 – Published 5 November, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/lxp5-c1g1

Abstract

Given the compact binary evolution problem of numerical relativity, in the finite-difference, block-based, adaptive mesh refinement context, choices must be made on how evolved fields are to be discretized. In gr-athena++, the space-time solver was previously fixed to be vertex centered. Here, our recent extensions to a cell-centered treatment are described. Simplifications in the handling of variables during the treatment of general relativistic magneto-hydrodynamical (GRMHD) evolution are found. A novelty is that performance comparison for the two choices of grid sampling is made within a single code base. In the case of a binary black hole inspiral-merger problem, by evolving geometric fields on vertex centers, an average ∼20% speed increase is observed, when compared against cell-centered sampling. The opposite occurs in the GRMHD setting. A binary neutron star inspiral-merger-collapse problem, representative of typical production simulations, is considered. We find that cell-centered sampling for the space-time solver improves performance, by a similar factor.

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Phys. Rev. D 112, 103006– Published 5 November, 2025
  • Received 24 June 2024
  • Accepted 19 September 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

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