Variational Symplectic Integrator for Long-Time Simulations of the Guiding-Center Motion of Charged Particles in General Magnetic Fields

Technical Report · Mon Feb 11 04:00:00 EST 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/960290· OSTI ID:960290

and X Guan, H Qin

A variational symplectic integrator for the guiding-center motion of charged particles in general magnetic fields is developed for long-time simulation studies of magnetized plasmas. Instead of discretizing the differential equations of the guiding-center motion, the action of the guiding-center motion is discretized and minimized to obtain the iteration rules for advancing the dynamics. The variational symplectic integrator conserves exactly a discrete Lagrangian symplectic structure, and has better numerical properties over long integration time, compared with standard integrators, such as the standard and variable time-step fourth order Runge-Kutta methods.

• Research Organization: Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• OSTI ID: 960290
• Report Number(s): PPPL-4286
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
CHARGED PARTICLES
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
Guiding-center Approximations
Gyrokinetic Equations
LAGRANGIAN FUNCTION
MAGNETIC FIELDS
Numerical Methods
Numerical Simulation
RUNGE-KUTTA METHOD
SIMULATION