Physical Fidelity in Particle-In-Cell Modeling of Small Debye-Length Plasmas

Journal Article · Thu Jan 22 00:00:00 EST 2009 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3080926· OSTI ID:21255240

Shadwick, B A ^[1]; Schroeder, C B ^[2]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-0111 (United States)
2. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States)

The connection between macro-particle shape functions and non-physical phase-space 'heating' in the particle-in-cell (PIC) algorithm is examined. The development of fine-scale phase-space structures starting from a cold initial condition is shown to be related to spatial correlations in the interpolated fields used in the Lorentz force. It is shown that the plasma evolution via the PIC algorithm from a cold initial condition leads to a state that is not consistent with that of a thermal plasma.

• OSTI ID: 21255240
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1086, Issue 1; Conference: 13. advanced accelerator concepts workshop, Santa Cruz, CA (United States), 27 Jul - 2 Aug 2008; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3080926; (c) 2009 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ACCELERATORS
ALGORITHMS
CORRELATIONS
DEBYE LENGTH
EVOLUTION
LORENTZ FORCE
PHASE SPACE
PLASMA
PLASMA HEATING
SIMULATION