On the Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy condition for numerical solvers of the coagulation equation

Abstract

Evolving the size distribution of solid aggregates challenges simulations of young stellar objects. Among other difficulties, generic formulae for stability conditions of explicit solvers provide severe constrains when integrating the coagulation equation for astrophysical objects. Recent numerical experiments have recently reported that these generic conditions may be much too stringent. By analysing the coagulation equation in the Laplace space, we explain why this is indeed the case and provide a novel stability condition which avoids time over-sampling.