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Title: A fully implicit, conservative, non-linear, electromagnetic hybrid particle-ion/fluid-electron algorithm

Journal Article · · Journal of Computational Physics

The quasi-neutral hybrid model with kinetic ions and fluid electrons is a promising approach for bridging the inherent multi-scale nature of many problems in space and laboratory plasmas. A novel, implicit, particle-in-cell based scheme for the hybrid model is derived for fully 3D electromagnetic problems with multiple ion species, which features global mass, momentum and energy conservation. The scheme includes sub-cycling and orbit-averaging for the ions, with cell-centered finite differences and implicit midpoint time advance. To reduce discrete particle noise, the scheme allows arbitrary-order shape functions for the particle-mesh interpolations and the application of conservative binomial smoothing. The algorithm is verified for a number of test problems to demonstrate the correctness of the implementation, the unique conservation properties, and the favorable stability properties of the new scheme. In particular, there is no indication of unstable growth of the finite-grid instability for a population of cold ions drifting through a uniform spatial mesh, in a set-up where several commonly used non-conservative schemes are highly unstable.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396
OSTI ID:
1477697
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1756197
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-18-21708
Journal Information:
Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 376; ISSN 0021-9991
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 11 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (1)

PolyPIC: the Polymorphic-Particle-in-Cell Method for Fluid-Kinetic Coupling text January 2018

Figures / Tables (5)