skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Study of discrete-particle effects in a one-dimensional plasma simulation with the Krook type collision model

Journal Article · · Physics of Plasmas
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4931741· OSTI ID:22490144
 [1];  [2]; ;  [1]
  1. Department of Physics, National Central University, Jhongli 32001, Taiwan (China)
  2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, California 92697 (United States)

The thermal relaxation time of a one-dimensional plasma has been demonstrated to scale with N{sub D}{sup 2} due to discrete particle effects by collisionless particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations, where N{sub D} is the particle number in a Debye length. The N{sub D}{sup 2} scaling is consistent with the theoretical analysis based on the Balescu-Lenard-Landau kinetic equation. However, it was found that the thermal relaxation time is anomalously shortened to scale with N{sub D} while externally introducing the Krook type collision model in the one-dimensional electrostatic PIC simulation. In order to understand the discrete particle effects enhanced by the Krook type collision model, the superposition principle of dressed test particles was applied to derive the modified Balescu-Lenard-Landau kinetic equation. The theoretical results are shown to be in good agreement with the simulation results when the collisional effects dominate the plasma system.

OSTI ID:
22490144
Journal Information:
Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 22, Issue 9; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English