Dialogue Concerning the Two Shock Codes

In this paper, we summarize the shock physics and the treatment of radiative transfer in two well-established shock codes -- the MAPPINGS code (Dopita1976,Binette1985,Sutherland1993) and the Cox/Raymond code (hereafter CR code) (Cox1972,Raymond1976,Raymond1979). We compare the ionization states, temperatures, electron densities, and the energy transportation of the shock models with shock velocities of 50, 110, 150 and 300 km/s. In summary, both codes adopt the Rankine-Hugoniot flow equation to describe the shock flows, giving the same shock physical properties at the immediate area behind shock fronts. The different treatments of radiative transfer in these two codes leads to somewhat different computation of the ionization and thermal structures of shocks, as well as the emission-line fluxes. This work highlights the importance of the delicate treatment of photoionization in shock models, providing insight of the future development of shock codes, such as the 3D shock codes.