Variational formulation of macro-particle plasma simulation algorithms

Journal Article · Thu May 15 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4874338· OSTI ID:22252829

Stamm, A. B. ^[1]; Evstatiev, E. G. ^[2]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-0111 (United States)
2. FAR-TECH, Inc., 10350 Science Center Drive, Bldg. 14, Suite 150, San Diego, California 92121 (United States)

A variation formulation of macro-particle kinetic plasma models is discussed. In the electrostatic case, the use of symplectic integrators is investigated and found to offer advantages over typical generic methods. For the electromagnetic case, gauge invariance and momentum conservation are considered in detail. It is shown that, while the symmetries responsible for these conservation laws are broken in the presence of a spatial grid, the conservation laws hold in an average sense. The requirements for exact invariance are explored and it is shown that one viable option is to represent the potentials with a truncated Fourier basis.

• OSTI ID: 22252829
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 21, Issue 5; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ALGORITHMS
CONSERVATION LAWS
GAUGE INVARIANCE
PLASMA
PLASMA SIMULATION
SYMMETRY
VARIATIONAL METHODS