Magnetohydronamic Evolution of HII Regions in Molecular Clouds: Simulation Methodology, Tests, and Uniform Media

Abstract

We present a method for simulating the evolution of HII regions driven by point sources of ionizing radiation in magnetohydrodynamic media, implemented in the three-dimensional Athena MHD code. We compare simulations using our algorithm to analytic solutions and show that the method passes rigorous tests of accuracy and convergence. The tests reveal several conditions that an ionizing radiation-hydrodynamic code must satisfy to reproduce analytic solutions. As a demonstration of our new method, we present the first three-dimensional, global simulation of an HII region expanding into a magnetized gas. The simulation shows that magnetic fields suppress sweeping up of gas perpendicular to magnetic field lines, leading to small density contrasts and extremely weak shocks at the leading edge of the HII region's expanding shell.