Particle-in-cell charged-particle simulations, plus Monte Carlo collisions with neutral atoms, PIC-MCC

Journal Article · Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 1991 · IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/27.106800· OSTI ID:5589379

Birdsall, C K ^[1]

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1. California Univ., Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Many-particle (meaning 100's) charged-particle plasma simulations using spatial meshes for the electromagnetic field solutions, particle-in-cell (PIC) merged with Monte Carlo collision (MCC) calculations, are coming into wide use for application to partially ionized gases. This paper emphasizes the development of PIC computer experiments since the 1950's starting with one-dimensional (1-D) charged-sheet models, the addition of the mesh, and fast direct Poisson equation solvers for 2-D and 3-D. The finite-size particle-in-mesh (finite {Delta}{chi}, {Delta}t) theory of Langdon is presented in part to display the effects of too small {lambda}{sub D}/{Delta}{chi}, even for Maxwellian velocity distributions, as a caution, for example, when some ions are cooled to background gas temperatures by charge exchange. Early work on adding collisions to 1-D charge-sheet models by Burger and Shanny et al. are presented, with many of the elements of current Monte Carlo codes. Bounded plasma modeling is presented with electrode charges and external R, L, C, and V(t), I(t) sources now in use on fast desktop computers as real-time computer experiments, complementing analytic modeling and laboratory experiments. This paper reports that the addition of Monte Carlo collisions (usually done with irregular timesteps) to PIC (usually done with uniform {Delta}t's) is displayed as a developing art, relying on experimental total cross sections and approximate analytical differential cross sections to produce changes in charged-particle speed and direction due to collisions with neutrals, so far including elastic, excitation, ionization, charge exchange, and attachment processes.

• OSTI ID: 5589379
• Journal Information: IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States), Vol. 19:2; ISSN 0093-3813
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
42 ENGINEERING
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
PLASMA
SIMULATION
BOLTZMANN STATISTICS
CATIONS
CHARGED PARTICLES
COMPUTERS
ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS
ELECTRON-ATOM COLLISIONS
GASES
ION-ATOM COLLISIONS
IONIZATION
MANY-BODY PROBLEM
MONTE CARLO METHOD
ONE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
PLASMA SHEET
POISSON EQUATION
REAL TIME SYSTEMS
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
TOTAL CROSS SECTIONS
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
ATOM COLLISIONS
COLLISIONS
CROSS SECTIONS
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
EARTH MAGNETOSPHERE
ELECTRON COLLISIONS
EQUATIONS
FLUIDS
ION COLLISIONS
IONS
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
700330* - Plasma Kinetics
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426000 - Engineering- Components
Electron Devices & Circuits- (1990-)
990200 - Mathematics & Computers