English

Time-step dependent force interpolation scheme for suppressing numerical Cherenkov instability in relativistic particle-in-cell simulations

Computational Physics 2020-05-20 v2 High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena Accelerator Physics Plasma Physics

Abstract

The WT scheme, a piecewise polynomial force interpolation scheme with time-step dependency, is proposed in this paper for relativistic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. The WT scheme removes the lowest order numerical Cherenkov instability (NCI) growth rate for arbitrary time steps allowed by the Courant condition. While NCI from higher order resonances is still present, the numerical tests show that for smaller time steps, the numerical instability grows much slower than using the optimal time step found in previous studies. The WT scheme is efficient for improving the quality and flexibility of relativistic PIC simulations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1909.09613,
  title  = {Time-step dependent force interpolation scheme for suppressing numerical Cherenkov instability in relativistic particle-in-cell simulations},
  author = {Yingchao Lu and Patrick Kilian and Fan Guo and Hui Li and Edison Liang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1909.09613},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

11 pages, single column, one figure