A Legendre–Fourier spectral method with exact conservation laws for the Vlasov–Poisson system

Journal Article · 22 April 2016 · Journal of Computational Physics

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcp.2016.03.069 · OSTI ID:1331266

Manzini, Gianmarco ^[1]; Delzanno, Gian Luca ^[2]; Vencels, Juris ^[2]; Markidis, Stefano ^[3]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Istituto di Matematica Applicata e Tecnologie Informatiche, Pavia (Italy)
2. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
3. KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm (Sweden)

In this study, we present the design and implementation of an L²-stable spectral method for the discretization of the Vlasov–Poisson model of a collisionless plasma in one space and velocity dimension. The velocity and space dependence of the Vlasov equation are resolved through a truncated spectral expansion based on Legendre and Fourier basis functions, respectively. The Poisson equation, which is coupled to the Vlasov equation, is also resolved through a Fourier expansion. The resulting system of ordinary differential equation is discretized by the implicit second-order accurate Crank–Nicolson time discretization. The non-linear dependence between the Vlasov and Poisson equations is iteratively solved at any time cycle by a Jacobian-Free Newton–Krylov method. In this work we analyze the structure of the main conservation laws of the resulting Legendre–Fourier model, e.g., mass, momentum, and energy, and prove that they are exactly satisfied in the semi-discrete and discrete setting. The L²-stability of the method is ensured by discretizing the boundary conditions of the distribution function at the boundaries of the velocity domain by a suitable penalty term. The impact of the penalty term on the conservation properties is investigated theoretically and numerically. An implementation of the penalty term that does not affect the conservation of mass, momentum and energy, is also proposed and studied. A collisional term is introduced in the discrete model to control the filamentation effect, but does not affect the conservation properties of the system. Numerical results on a set of standard test problems illustrate the performance of the method.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 1331266
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1347624
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-15-27359
• Journal Information: Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 317, Issue C; ISSN 0021-9991
• Publisher: ElsevierCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English