Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Comparison of Conservation Behavior in Several Variationally Derived Implementations for Simulating Electromagnetic Plasmas

Conference · · 2018 IEEE Advanced Accelerator Concepts Workshop (AAC)
 [1];  [1]
  1. Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE (United States)

Variational techniques based on Low's Lagrangian formulation have demonstrated significant improvement in conservation properties as compared to traditional particle-in-cell (PIC) algorithms. Previous work showed that equations derived from a discretized Lagrangian preserve a discretized version of the connection between Lagrangian symmetries and conservation laws, i.e., Noether's theorem. Specifically, a thorough analysis of energy conservation within the new system explained the absence of “grid heating” phenomena. In the present work, variationally derived implementations in a gridded periodic domain were compared to analogous implementations using Fourier bases. Since the Fourier basis allows for exact momentum conservation, this approach enables us to compare the relative merits of exact and approximate momentum conservation. Furthermore, to establish a tangible comparison for numerical methods, we investigate two simple physical examples; (1) the coupling of an electrostatic and electromagnetic plasma wave and (2) an equilibrium supporting Weibel instability.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF)
DOE Contract Number:
SC0018363; PHY-1535678
OSTI ID:
1894690
Journal Information:
2018 IEEE Advanced Accelerator Concepts Workshop (AAC), Conference: 2018 IEEE Advanced Accelerator Concepts Workshop (AAC), Breckenridge, CO (United States), 12-17 Aug 2018
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (5)