Covariant hyperbolization of force-free electrodynamics

Abstract

Force-free electrodynamics (FFE) is a nonlinear system of equations modeling the evolution of the electromagnetic field, in the presence of a magnetically dominated relativistic plasma. This configuration arises on several astrophysical scenarios which represent exciting laboratories to understand physics in extreme regimes. We show that this system, when restricted to the correct constraint submanifold, is symmetric hyperbolic. In numerical applications, it is not feasible to keep the system in that submanifold, and so it is necessary to analyze its structure first in the tangent space of that submanifold and then in a whole neighborhood of it. As has been shown [1], a direct (or naive) formulation of this system (in the whole tangent space) results in a weakly hyperbolic system of evolution equations for which well-posedness for the initial value formulation does not follow. Using the generalized symmetric hyperbolic formalism of Geroch [2], we introduce here a covariant hyperbolization for the FFE system. In fact, in analogy to the usual Maxwell case, a complete family of hyperbolizers is found, both for the restricted system on the constraint submanifold as well as for a suitably extended system defined in a whole neighborhood of it. A particular symmetrizer among the family is then used to write down the pertaining evolution equations, in a generic (3+1) decomposition on a background spacetime. Interestingly, it turns out that for a particular choice of the lapse and shift functions of the foliation, our symmetrized system reduces to the one found in [1]. Finally, we analyze the characteristic structure of the resulting evolution system.