Open AccessThe relativistic implicit Particle-in-Cell method
Author(s) -
Fabio Bacchini,
Jorge Amaya,
Giovanni Lapenta
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of physics. conference series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.21
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1742-6596
pISSN - 1742-6588
DOI - 10.1088/1742-6596/1225/1/012011
Subject(s) - particle in cell , range (aeronautics) , kinetic energy , particle (ecology) , physics , scale (ratio) , relativistic particle , plasma , numerical analysis , statistical physics , classical mechanics , mathematics , smoothed particle hydrodynamics , computer science , mechanics , mathematical analysis , quantum mechanics , electron , aerospace engineering , oceanography , geology , engineering
Relativistic Particle-in-Cell (PiC) methods are among the most reliable methods for the investigation of plasma phenomena at the particle scale. Standard explicit and semi-implicit PiC methods are affected by numerical instabilities that restrain the range of admissible simulation parameters, and prevent their application to large domains over long time scales. Here, we present a three-dimensional, fully-implicit algorithm for relativistic PiC simulations that conserves energy exactly (to machine precision) and eliminates numerical instabilities, allowing long-term calculations. We describe the full numerical solution procedure and test the algorithm with several one-and two-dimensional case-studies of kinetic instabilities, comparing the results with theoretical predictions.