Explicit high-order non-canonical symplectic particle-in-cell
 algorithms for Vlasov-Maxwell systems

Authors:  Jianyuan Xiao, Hong Qin, Jian Liu, Yang He, Ruili Zhang, and Yajuan Sun

Abstract:  Explicit high-order non-canonical symplectic particle-in-cell algorithms for classical particle-field systems governed by the Vlasov-Maxwell equations are developed. The algorithm conserves a discrete non-canonical symplectic structure derived from the Lagrangian of the particle-field system, which is naturally discrete in particles. The electromagnetic field is spatially-discretized using the method of discrete exterior calculus with high-order interpolating differential forms for a cubic grid. The resulting time-domain Lagrangian assumes a non-canonical symplectic structure. It is also gauge invariant and conserves charge. The system is then solved using a structure-preserving splitting method discovered by He et al., which produces five exactly-soluble sub-systems, and high-order structure-preserving algorithms follow by combinations. The explicit, high-order, and conservative nature of the algorithms is especially suitable for long-term simulations of particle-field systems with extremely large number of degrees of freedom on massively parallel supercomputers.  The algorithms have been tested and verified by the two physics problems, i.e., the nonlinear Landau damping and the electron Bernstein wave.
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Submitted to: Physics of Plasmas
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Download PPPL-5208 (pdf 2.8 MB 23 pp)
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