Finite grid instability and spectral fidelity of the electrostatic Particle-In-Cell algorithm

Huang, C. -K.; Zeng, Y.; Wang, Y.; Meyers, M. D.; Yi, S.; Albright, B. J.

doi:10.1016/j.cpc.2016.05.021

Finite grid instability and spectral fidelity of the electrostatic Particle-In-Cell algorithm

Journal Article · Sat Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Computer Physics Communications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpc.2016.05.021· OSTI ID:1258644

^[1]; Zeng, Y. ^[1]; Wang, Y. ^[1]; Meyers, M. D. ^[2]; Yi, S. ^[1]; Albright, B. J. ^[1]

Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)

The origin of the Finite Grid Instability (FGI) is studied by resolving the dynamics in the 1D electrostatic Particle-In-Cell (PIC) model in the spectral domain at the single particle level and at the collective motion level. The spectral fidelity of the PIC model is contrasted with the underlying physical system or the gridless model. The systematic spectral phase and amplitude errors from the charge deposition and field interpolation are quantified for common particle shapes used in the PIC models. Lastly, it is shown through such analysis and in simulations that the lack of spectral fidelity relative to the physical system due to the existence of aliased spatial modes is the major cause of the FGI in the PIC model.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-06NA25396

OSTI ID:: 1258644

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1396461

Report Number(s):: LA-UR-15-26028

Journal Information:: Computer Physics Communications, Journal Name: Computer Physics Communications; ISSN 0010-4655

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (20)

Nonphysical noises and instabilities in plasma simulation due to a spatial grid Okuda, Hideo Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 10, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/0021-9991(72)90048-4	journal	December 1972
A comparison of some particle-in-cell plasma simulation methods Lewis, H. Ralph; Sykes, A.; Wesson, J. A. Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 10, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/0021-9991(72)90092-7	journal	August 1972
Plasma self-heating and saturation due to numerical instabilities Birdsall, Charles K.; Maron, Neil Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 36, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/0021-9991(80)90171-0	journal	June 1980
A Method to Suppress the Finite-Grid Instability in Plasma Simulations Brackbill, J. W.; Lapenta, Giovanni Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 114, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1006/jcph.1994.1150	journal	September 1994
Energy-conserving numerical approximations for Vlasov plasmas Lewis, H. Ralph Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 6, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/0021-9991(70)90012-4	journal	August 1970
Effects of the spatial grid in simulation plasmas Langdon, A. Bruce Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 6, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/0021-9991(70)90024-0	journal	October 1970
Dispersion relation for computer-simulated plasmas Lindman, E. L. Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 5, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/0021-9991(70)90049-5	journal	February 1970
Reduction of the grid effects in simulation plasmas Chen, Liu; Bruce Langdon, A.; Birdsall, C. K. Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 14, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/0021-9991(74)90014-X	journal	February 1974
Numerical Cherenkov instabilities in electromagnetic particle codes Godfrey, Brendan B. Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 15, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1016/0021-9991(74)90076-X	journal	August 1974
Gridless finite-size-particle plasma simulation Vlad, G.; Briguglio, S.; Fogaccia, G. Computer Physics Communications, Vol. 134, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0010-4655(00)00191-0	journal	February 2001
Numerical instability due to relativistic plasma drift in EM-PIC simulations Xu, Xinlu; Yu, Peicheng; Martins, Samual F. Computer Physics Communications, Vol. 184, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpc.2013.07.003	journal	November 2013
An energy- and charge-conserving, implicit, electrostatic particle-in-cell algorithm Chen, G.; Chacón, L.; Barnes, D. C. Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 230, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcp.2011.05.031	journal	August 2011
The energy conserving particle-in-cell method Markidis, Stefano; Lapenta, Giovanni Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 230, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcp.2011.05.033	journal	August 2011
Variational formulation of particle algorithms for kinetic plasma simulations Evstatiev, E. G.; Shadwick, B. A. Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 245 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcp.2013.03.006	journal	July 2013
Numerical stability of relativistic beam multidimensional PIC simulations employing the Esirkepov algorithm Godfrey, Brendan B.; Vay, Jean-Luc Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 248 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcp.2013.04.006	journal	September 2013
On the numerical dispersion of electromagnetic particle-in-cell code: Finite grid instability Meyers, M. D.; Huang, C. -K.; Zeng, Y. Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 297 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcp.2015.05.037	journal	September 2015
Kinetic approach to microscopic-macroscopic coupling in space and laboratory plasmas Lapenta, Giovanni; Brackbill, J. U.; Ricci, Paolo Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 13, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2173623	journal	May 2006
A variational multi-symplectic particle-in-cell algorithm with smoothing functions for the Vlasov-Maxwell system Xiao, Jianyuan; Liu, Jian; Qin, Hong Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 20, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4826218	journal	October 2013
Explicit high-order non-canonical symplectic particle-in-cell algorithms for Vlasov-Maxwell systems Xiao, Jianyuan; Qin, Hong; Liu, Jian Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 22, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4935904	journal	November 2015
Development of a Consistent and Stable Fully Implicit Moment Method for Vlasov--Ampère Particle in Cell (PIC) System Taitano, William T.; Knoll, Dana A.; Chacón, Luis SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing, Vol. 35, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1137/120881385	journal	January 2013

Similar Records

On the Numerical Dispersion of Electromagnetic Particle-In-Cell Code : Finite Grid Instability

Technical Report · Tue Jul 15 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · OSTI ID:1143957

Finite spatial-grid effects in energy-conserving particle-in-cell algorithms

Journal Article · Mon Aug 31 20:00:00 EDT 2020 · Computer Physics Communications · OSTI ID:1659174

On the numerical dispersion of electromagnetic particle-in-cell code: Finite grid instability

Journal Article · Tue Sep 15 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Journal of Computational Physics · OSTI ID:22465656

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
Mathematics

Finite grid instability and spectral fidelity of the electrostatic Particle-In-Cell algorithm

Citation Formats

References (20)

Similar Records

Related Subjects