Discrete kinetic eigenmode spectra of electron plasma oscillations in weakly collisional plasma: A numerical study

Journal Article · Tue Jan 15 04:00:00 EST 2013 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4789882· OSTI ID:22113337

Black, Carrie ^[1]; Germaschewski, Kai; Bhattacharjee, Amitava ^[2]; Ng, C. S. ^[3]

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1. Space Weather Lab, NASA/GSFC Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 (United States)
2. Department of Physics, Center for Integrated Computation and Analysis of Reconnection and Turbulence, Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire 03824 (United States)
3. Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775 (United States)

It has been demonstrated that in the presence of weak collisions, described by the Lenard-Bernstein (LB) collision operator, the Landau-damped solutions become true eigenmodes of the system and constitute a complete set [C.-S. Ng et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 1974 (1999) and C. S. Ng et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 065002 (2004)]. We present numerical results from an Eulerian Vlasov code that incorporates the Lenard-Bernstein collision operator [A. Lenard and I. B. Bernstein, Phys. Rev. 112, 1456 (1958)]. The effect of collisions on the numerical recursion phenomenon seen in Vlasov codes is discussed. The code is benchmarked against exact linear eigenmode solutions in the presence of weak collisions, and a spectrum of Landau-damped solutions is determined within the limits of numerical resolution. Tests of the orthogonality and the completeness relation are presented.

• OSTI ID: 22113337
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 20; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
BOLTZMANN-VLASOV EQUATION
COLLISIONAL PLASMA
COLLISIONS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
ELECTRONS
MATHEMATICAL SOLUTIONS
NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
PLASMA WAVES
RESOLUTION
SPECTRA