A Fluid-Kinetic Hybrid Electron Model for Electromagnetic Simulations
Authors: Zhihong Lin and Liu Chen
Date of PPPL Report: January 2001
Published in: Phys. Plasmas 8 (May 2001) 1447-1450.
A fluid-kinetic hybrid electron model for electromagnetic simulations of finite-beta plasmas is developed based on an expansion of the electron response using the electron-ion mass ratio as a small parameter (Here beta is the ratio of plasma pressure to magnetic pressure.) The model accurately recovers low-frequency plasma dielectric responses and faithfully preserves nonlinear kinetic effects (e.g., phase space trapping). Maximum numerical efficiency is achieved by overcoming the electron Courant condition and suppressing high-frequency modes. This method is most useful for nonlinear kinetic (particle-in-cell or Vlasov) simulations of electromagnetic microturbulence and Alfvénic instabilities in magnetized plasmas.