A new discretely divergence-free positivity-preserving high-order finite volume method for ideal MHD equations

This paper proposes and analyzes a novel efficient high-order finite volume method for the ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). As a distinctive feature, the method simultaneously preserves a discretely divergence-free (DDF) constraint on the magnetic field and the positivity-preserving (PP) property, which ensures the positivity of density, pressure, and internal energy. To enforce the DDF condition, we design a new discrete projection approach that projects the reconstructed point values at the cell interface into a DDF space, without using any approximation polynomials. This projection method is highly efficient, easy to implement, and particularly suitable for standard high-order finite volume WENO methods, which typically return only the point values in the reconstruction. Moreover, we also develop a new finite volume framework for constructing provably PP schemes for the ideal MHD system. The framework comprises the discrete projection technique, a suitable approximation to the Godunov--Powell source terms, and a simple PP limiter. We provide rigorous analysis of the PP property of the proposed finite volume method, demonstrating that the DDF condition and the proper approximation to the source terms eliminate the impact of magnetic divergence terms on the PP property. The analysis is challenging due to the internal energy function's nonlinearity and the intricate relationship between the DDF and PP properties. To address these challenges, the recently developed geometric quasilinearization approach is adopted, which transforms a nonlinear constraint into a family of linear constraints. Finally, we validate the effectiveness of the proposed method through several benchmark and demanding numerical examples. The results demonstrate that the proposed method is robust, accurate, and highly effective, confirming the significance of the proposed DDF projection and PP techniques.