James Stone

About

James Stone is an Emeritus Professor of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University. His research program centers on the use of large-scale direct numerical simulations to study the gas dynamics of a wide range of astrophysical systems, from protostars to clusters of galaxies. He is one of the primary developers of the ZEUS code for astrophysical magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), and more recently, he and his collaborators have developed Athena, a high-order Godunov scheme for astrophysical MHD that utilizes adaptive mesh refinement (AMR). His work includes investigating hydrodynamic and MHD processes that lead to outward angular momentum transport in accretion disks, the production and propagation of highly supersonic, collimated jets from accretion disks around protostars and active galactic nuclei, and the properties of compressible MHD turbulence in cold molecular gas in the galaxy. Additionally, he studies the time-dependent evolution of strong shocks in the interstellar medium, the structure of radiatively driven winds and outflows from disks around hot stars and active galactic nuclei, and the effects of mergers and AGN feedback on hot X-ray emitting gas in galaxy clusters. James Stone is deeply involved in PICSciE, which provides access to high-performance computing systems and training in scientific computation and numerical analysis, and holds a joint appointment in the Program in Applied and Computation Mathematics (PACM).

Research topics

• Physics
• Astrophysics
• Mechanics
• Astronomy
• Computational physics

Selected publications

• Cosmological simulations of quasar fueling to sub-parsec scales using Lagrangian hyper-refinement

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2020-08-27 · 108 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  We present cosmological hydrodynamic simulations of a quasar-mass halo ($M_{\rm halo} \approx 10^{12.5}\,{\rm M}_{\odot}$ at z=2) that for the first time resolve gas transport down to the inner 0.1 pc surrounding the central massive black hole. We model a multi-phase interstellar medium including stellar feedback by supernovae, stellar winds, and radiation, and a hyper-Lagrangian refinement technique increasing the resolution dynamically approaching the black hole. We do not include black hole f…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Performance-portable Binary Neutron Star Mergers with AthenaK

  The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series · 2025-01-14 · 13 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract We introduce an extension to the AthenaK code for general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD) in dynamical spacetimes using a 3+1 conservative Eulerian formulation. Like the fixed-spacetime GRMHD solver, we use standard finite-volume methods to evolve the fluid and a constrained-transport scheme to preserve the divergence-free constraint for the magnetic field. We also utilize a first-order flux correction (FOFC) scheme to reduce the need for an artificial atmosphere and optionall…

  PublisherDOI

• Cyclic Zoom: Multiscale GRMHD Modeling of Black Hole Accretion and Feedback

  The Astrophysical Journal · 2025-07-08 · 12 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  Abstract We present a “cyclic zoom” method to capture the dynamics of accretion flows onto black holes across a vast range of spatial and temporal scales in general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations. In this method, we cyclically zoom out (derefine) and zoom in (refine) the simulation domain while using a central mask region containing a careful treatment of the coarsened fluid variables to preserve the small-scale physics, in particular the magnetic field dynamics. The method…

  PublisherDOI

• Radiation GRMHD Models of Accretion onto Stellar-mass Black Holes. I. Survey of Eddington Ratios

  The Astrophysical Journal · 2025-12-03 · 10 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract We summarize results from a survey of radiation-dominated black hole accretion flows across a wide range of mass accretion rates, as well as two values of black hole spin and initial magnetic field geometry. These models apply an algorithm targeting direct solutions to the radiation transport equation in full general relativity and have been enabled by access to modern exascale computing systems. Super-Eddington accretion flows form geometrically thick radiation-pressure-supported disks…

  PublisherDOI

• Highly multi-mode hollow core fibers

  Optics Express · 2025-05-22 · 7 citations

  articleOpen access

  The loss and damage thresholds of conventional solid core fibers are greatly improved in anti-resonant hollow core fibers, but fabrication has largely been limited to single mode hollow fibers. There are many applications of conventional multi-mode fibers that would also benefit from the properties of hollow core fibers and are not currently addressed. This is particularly important at ultraviolet and mid-infrared wavelengths where single-mode lasers are harder to obtain and other light sources…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• MHD Models of Accretion Disks in Close Binaries

  NSF · $312k · 2013–2017

• SAVI: A Max-Planck/Princeton Research Center for Plasma Physics

  NSF · $950k · 2012–2016

• A Max-Planck/Princeton Research Center for Plasma Physics

  NSF · $540k · 2015–2018

Frequent coauthors

• K. Werner

  54 shared

• I. Hubený

  42 shared

• Keith MacGregor

  42 shared

• Michael L. Norman

  University of California, San Diego

  41 shared

• Eve C. Ostriker

  31 shared

• Eliot Quataert

  26 shared

• Shane W. Davis

  University of Virginia

  24 shared

• Yan-Fei Jiang

  Flatiron Institute

  24 shared

Labs

• James StonePI

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