Plasma waves as a benchmark problem

Kilian, Patrick; Muñoz, Patricio A.; Schreiner, Cedric; Spanier, F.

doi:10.1017/s0022377817000149

Cited by 16 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…More recently, Kilian et al. ( 2017 ) presented a set of validation tests based on kinetic plasma waves, and discussed what their expected behaviour should look like in fully kinetic PIC simulations as well as different levels of simplification (Darwin approximation, EMHD, hybrid). By nature, waves and instabilities are a sensitive and valuable verification tool for plasma models, as they are an emergence of the collective behaviour of plasma.…”

Section: Vlasiatormentioning

confidence: 99%

Vlasov methods in space physics and astrophysics

Palmroth

Ganse

Pfau‐Kempf

et al. 2018

Living Rev Comput Astrophys

140

143

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper reviews Vlasov-based numerical methods used to model plasma in space physics and astrophysics. Plasma consists of collectively behaving charged particles that form the major part of baryonic matter in the Universe. Many concepts ranging from our own planetary environment to the Solar system and beyond can be understood in terms of kinetic plasma physics, represented by the Vlasov equation. We introduce the physical basis for the Vlasov system, and then outline the associated numerical methods that are typically used. A particular application of the Vlasov system is Vlasiator, the world’s first global hybrid-Vlasov simulation for the Earth’s magnetic domain, the magnetosphere. We introduce the design strategies for Vlasiator and outline its numerical concepts ranging from solvers to coupling schemes. We review Vlasiator’s parallelisation methods and introduce the used high-performance computing (HPC) techniques. A short review of verification, validation and physical results is included. The purpose of the paper is to present the Vlasov system and introduce an example implementation, and to illustrate that even with massive computational challenges, an accurate description of physics can be rewarding in itself and significantly advance our understanding. Upcoming supercomputing resources are making similar efforts feasible in other fields as well, making our design options relevant for others facing similar challenges.

show abstract

Section: Vlasiatormentioning

confidence: 99%

Vlasov methods in space physics and astrophysics

Palmroth

Ganse

Pfau‐Kempf

et al. 2018

Living Rev Comput Astrophys

140

143

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This and similar plasma waves test problems (see also Sec. 4.3) are very useful for benchmarking of hybrid or PiC codes [70]. The physical and numerical parameters for the simulation are summarized in Tables 1 and 2 v th,i = k B T i /m i is the ion thermal speed, T i is the ion temperature and β i is the ratio of ion thermal pressure to magnetic pressure.…”

Section: Parallel Electromagnetic Modesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new hybrid code (CHIEF) implementing the inertial electron fluid equation without approximation

Muñoz

Jain

Kilian

et al. 2018

Computer Physics Communications

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We present a new hybrid algorithm implemented in the code CHIEF ( Code Hybrid with Inertial Electron Fluid) for simulations of electron–ion plasmas. The algorithm treats the ions kinetically, modeled by the Particle-in-Cell (PiC) method, and electrons as an inertial fluid, modeled by electron fluid equations without any of the approximations used in most of the other hybrid codes with an inertial electron fluid. This kind of code is appropriate to model a large variety of quasineutral plasma phenomena where the electron inertia and/or ion kinetic effects are relevant. We present here the governing equations of the model, how these are discretized and implemented numerically, as well as six test problems to validate our numerical approach. Our chosen test problems, where the electron inertia and ion kinetic effects play the essential role, are: 0) Excitation of parallel eigenmodes to check numerical convergence and stability, 1) parallel (to a background magnetic field) propagating electromagnetic waves, 2) perpendicular propagating electrostatic waves (ion Bernstein modes), 3) ion beam right-hand instability (resonant and non-resonant), 4) ion Landau damping, 5) ion firehose instability, and 6) 2D oblique ion firehose instability. Our results reproduce successfully the predictions of linear and non-linear theory for all these problems, validating our code. All properties of this hybrid code make it ideal to study multi-scale phenomena between electron and ion scales such as collisionless shocks, magnetic reconnection and kinetic plasma turbulence in the dissipation range above the electron scales

show abstract

“…Although our method is geared towards solving electron motion at coarse spatial resolutions, to further validate the solver, a wave dispersion test was run (Kilian et al, 2017;Kempf et al, 2013). As waves are a collective, emergent phenomenon of an electron number density of n e = 0.4 • 10 6 m −3 , an electron temperature of T e = 2.5 MK, and a magnetic field magnitude of 50 nT.…”

Section: Dispersion Relation Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Vlasov simulation of electrons in the context of hybrid global models: A Vlasiator approach

Battarbee¹,

Brito²,

Alho³

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Modern investigations of dynamical space plasma systems such as magnetically complicated topologies within the Earth's magnetosphere make great use of supercomputer models as well as spacecraft observations. Space plasma simulations can be used to investigate energy transfer, acceleration, and plasma flows on both global and local scales. Simulation of global magnetospheric dynamics requires spatial and temporal scales achievable through magnetohydrodynamics or hybrid-kinetic simulations, which approximate electron dynamics as a charge-neutralizing fluid. We introduce a novel method for Vlasov-simulating electrons in the context of a hybrid-kinetic framework in order to examine the energization processes of magnetospheric electrons. Our extension of the Vlasiator hybrid-Vlasov code utilizes the global simulation dynamics of the hybrid method whilst modelling snapshots of electron dynamics on global spatial scales and temporal scales suitable for electron physics. Our model is shown to be stable both for single-cell and small-scale domains, and the solver successfully models Langmuir waves and Bernstein modes. We simulate a small test-case section of the near-Earth magnetotail plasma sheet region, reproducing a number of electron distribution function features found in spacecraft measurements.

show abstract

Plasma waves as a benchmark problem

Cited by 16 publications

References 32 publications

Vlasov methods in space physics and astrophysics

Vlasov methods in space physics and astrophysics

A new hybrid code (CHIEF) implementing the inertial electron fluid equation without approximation

Vlasov simulation of electrons in the context of hybrid global models: A Vlasiator approach

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About