2026-07-072026-07-07http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/211651A number of astrophysical scenarios possess and preserve an overall cylindrical symmetry also when undergoing a catastrophic and nonlinear evolution. Exploiting such a symmetry, these processes can be studied through numerical-relativity simulations at smaller computational costs and at considerably larger spatial resolutions. We here present a new flux-conservative formulation of the relativistic hydrodynamics equations in cylindrical coordinates. By rearranging those terms in the equations which are the sources of the largest numerical errors, the new formulation yields a global truncation error which is one or more orders of magnitude smaller than those of alternative and commonly used formulations. We illustrate this through a series of numerical tests involving the evolution of oscillating spherical and rotating stars, as well as shock-tube tests.19 pages, 9 figuresGeneral Relativity and Quantum CosmologyAn improved formulation of the relativistic hydrodynamics equations in 2D Cartesian coordinatestext