Numerical Simulations of Stellar Winds

We discuss steady-state transonic outflows obtained by direct numerical solution of the hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic equations. We make use of the Versatile Advection Code, a software package for solving systems of (hyperbolic) partial differential equations. We model thermally and magneto-centrifugally driven stellar outflows as generalizations of the well-known Parker and Weber-Davis wind solutions. To obtain steady-state solutions efficiently, we exploit fully implicit time stepping. Wind solutions containing both a 'wind' and a 'dead' zone are presented. We emphasize the boundary conditions imposed at the stellar surface. For axisymmetric wind solutions, we use the knowledge of the flux functions to verify the numerical solutions. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.