Gridless particle technique for the Vlasov–Poisson system in problems with high degree of symmetry

Abstract

In the paper, gridless particle techniques are presented in order to solve problems involving electrostatic, collisionless plasmas. The method makes use of computational particles having the shape of spherical shells or of rings, and can be used to study cases in which the plasma has spherical or axial symmetry, respectively. As a computational grid is absent, the technique is particularly suitable when the plasma occupies a rapidly changing space region.

Study on electron emission by a spherical object: dynamics of trapped particles

“…Typical numerical results are presented in figures 1-4. The numerical simulation of the transients has been performed by using the 'shell' method (Boella et al 2018). The method uses computational particles in the shape of spherical shells, and the electric field is evaluated with Gauss's theorem on a shell of radius r by summing the charges of the particles included in the shell without using a computational grid.…”

Ion acceleration in electrostatic collisionless shock: on the optimal density profile for quasi-monoenergetic beams

“…Assuming the upper limit of inequality (5) as the optimal scale length L g , theoretical predictions have been tested with simulations. The numerical study has been performed employing the shell model [17][18][19], a particle-based gridless algorithm. The use of this technique, which has been benchmarked with the particle-in-cell code Osiris [20], showing excellent agreement [21], results particularly advantageous in this case, because it entails a reduced computational time.…”