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A curvilinear, fully implicit, conservative electromagnetic PIC algorithm in multiple dimensions

Journal Article · · Journal of Computational Physics
 [1];  [1]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Here, we extend a recently proposed fully implicit PIC algorithm for the Vlasov–Darwin model in multiple dimensions (Chen and Chacón (2015) [1]) to curvilinear geometry. As in the Cartesian case, the approach is based on a potential formulation (Φ, A), and overcomes many difficulties of traditional semi-implicit Darwin PIC algorithms. Conservation theorems for local charge and global energy are derived in curvilinear representation, and then enforced discretely by a careful choice of the discretization of field and particle equations. Additionally, the algorithm conserves canonical-momentum in any ignorable direction, and preserves the Coulomb gauge ∇ • A = 0 exactly. An asymptotically well-posed fluid preconditioner allows efficient use of large cell sizes, which are determined by accuracy considerations, not stability, and can be orders of magnitude larger than required in a standard explicit electromagnetic PIC simulation. We demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency properties of the algorithm with numerical experiments in mapped meshes in 1D-3V and 2D-3V.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396
OSTI ID:
1255248
Report Number(s):
LA-UR--15-27639
Journal Information:
Journal of Computational Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Computational Physics Journal Issue: C Vol. 316; ISSN 0021-9991
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (2)

Verification of long wavelength electromagnetic modes with a gyrokinetic-fluid hybrid model in the XGC code journal May 2017
Metriplectic integrators for the Landau collision operator journal October 2017

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