Authors: Robert A. Piontek*, Oliver Gressel*, and Udo Ziegler*

We compare the NIRVANA and ZEUS MHD codes by performing identical simulations of which the main ingredients are a radiative cooling function and turbulence driven by the magnetorotational instability (MRI). Our motivation is as follows: the neutral component of the ISM is characterized by cold clouds embedded in a warm ambient medium, and the transition between these two components can be quite sharp. Modelling these types of features can be computationally challenging, and no previous comparison which includes a radiative cooling function has been published. Our goal is to assess to what extent the numerical scheme can impact the mass and volume fractions of the ISM phases, temperature distributions, and other relevant quantities.

*Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam