Derivation of the lattice Boltzmann model for relativistic hydrodynamics

A detailed derivation of the lattice Boltzmann scheme for relativistic fluids recently proposed in M. Mendoza, B. Boghosian, H. Herrmann, and S. Succi, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 014502 ( 2010) is presented. The method is numerically validated and applied to the case of two quite different relativistic fluid-dynamic problems, namely, shock-wave propagation in quark-gluon plasmas and the impact of a supernova blast wave on massive interstellar clouds. Close to second-order convergence with the grid resolution, as well as linear dependence of computational time on the number of grid points and time steps, are reported.