A Reduced-Order Particle-in-Cell Method with Azimuthal Fourier-Decomposed Fields for Nominally Axisymmetric Plasmas
New reduced-order particle-in-cell method accelerates kinetic simulations of axisymmetric plasmas with azimuthal instabilities.
Researchers have developed a novel reduced-order particle-in-cell (PIC) method designed to improve the efficiency of kinetic simulations for plasmas that are nominally axisymmetric but experience azimuthal instabilities.
The technique achieves computational savings by decomposing field quantities into a limited set of azimuthal Fourier modes. This transforms the computationally expensive three-dimensional field solve into a series of independent two-dimensional problems, significantly reducing the overall cost.
Validation against the diocotron instability in hollow electron annuli demonstrated the method's accuracy, recovering linear growth rates and eigenmode structures within 7% of analytic predictions across various configurations.
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