English

Framework for solutions of the Boltzmann equation for ions of arbitrary mass

Computational Physics 2017-12-11 v1 Plasma Physics

Abstract

We present a framework for the solution of Boltzmann's equation in the swarm limit for arbitrary mass ratio, allowing for solutions of electron or ion transport. An arbitrary basis set can be used in the framework, which is achieved by using appropriate quadratures to obtain the required matrix elements. We demonstrate an implementation using Burnett functions and benchmark the calculations using Monte-Carlo simulations. Even though the convergence in transport quantities is always good, the particle distributions did not always converge, highlighting that simple benchmarks can give misleading confidence in a choice of basis. We postulate a different basis, which avoids a spherical harmonic expansion, which is better suited to strong electric fields or sharp features such as low-energy attachment processes.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1612.09008,
  title  = {Framework for solutions of the Boltzmann equation for ions of arbitrary mass},
  author = {D. A. Konovalov and D. G. Cocks and R. D. White},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1612.09008},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

10 pages, 4 figures