A gauge-compatible Hamiltonian splitting algorithm for particle-in-cell simulations using finite element exterior calculus

Abstract

A particle-in-cell algorithm is derived with a canonical Poisson structure in the formalism of finite element exterior calculus. The resulting method belongs to the class of gauge-compatible splitting algorithms, which exactly preserve gauge symmetries and their associated conservation laws via the momentum map. We numerically demonstrate this time invariance of the momentum map and its usefulness in establishing precise initial conditions with a desired initial electric field and fixed background charge. The restriction of this canonical, finite element Poisson structure to the 1X2P $1\frac {1}{2}$ -dimensional phase space is also considered and simulated numerically.