Asymptotically stable particle-in-cell methods for the Vlasov-Poisson system with a strong external magnetic field
This work addresses the numerical stability bottleneck for simulating plasma dynamics under strong magnetic fields, which is critical for fusion and astrophysics applications.
The paper develops an asymptotic-preserving particle-in-cell (PIC) method for the Vlasov-Poisson system with a strong external magnetic field, overcoming stability constraints on time and space steps. The method is validated through numerical experiments and consistently approximates the guiding-center equation in the large-field limit.
This paper deals with the numerical resolution of the Vlasov-Poissonsystem with a strong external magnetic field by Particle-In-Cell(PIC) methods. In this regime, classical PIC methods are subject tostability constraints on the time and space steps related to the smallLarmor radius and plasma frequency. Here, we propose anasymptotic-preserving PIC scheme which is not subjected to theselimitations. Our approach is based on first and higher order semi-implicit numericalschemes already validated on dissipative systems. Additionally, when the magnitude of the external magneticfield becomes large, this method provides a consistent PICdiscretization of the guiding-center equation, that is, incompressibleEuler equation in vorticity form. We propose several numerical experiments which provide a solid validation of the method and its underlying concepts.