Pushing particles in extreme fields

Gordon, Daniel; Hafizi, B.; Palastro, J. P.

doi:10.1063/1.4975863

Cited by 8 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…The remaining errors are related to the particle pusher. To illustrate this, three pushers (Boris, HC and an analytic pusher that is an extension of the ideas in Gordon et al [30] and Pétri [42]) are tested along with the proposed solver for the a 0 = 100 case. By ''analytic'' pusher, it is meant that an analytic solution is used for the evolution of the proper velocity under the assumption that E and B fields are constant during an interval of time.…”

Section: Single Particle In a Laser Fieldmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This situation arises in high-intensity laserplasma interactions and plasma-based acceleration. It has been recognized for some time that errors arise when computing the trajectory of single particles in the fields of intense light waves (lasers) [28][29][30]. In this work, we analyze several reasons for these errors and propose a solution that can be implemented into PIC codes that utilize finite-difference and FFT-based algorithms [15,17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This method essentially recovers the analytic result when small enough time steps are used. Gordon et al [30] showed that a covariant pusher could be exact if the fields are constant during a proper time step. Very recently, Pétri [42] proposed an exact or analytic pusher (for constant fields over a time step) in which a mapping between the proper and lab time for each particle is required.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A new field solver for modeling of relativistic particle-laser interactions using the particle-in-cell algorithm

Miller

et al. 2021

Computer Physics Communications

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A customized finite-difference field solver for the particle-in-cell (PIC) algorithm that provides higher fidelity for wave-particle interactions in intense electromagnetic waves is presented. In many problems of interest, particles with relativistic energies interact with intense electromagnetic fields that have phase velocities near the speed of light. Numerical errors can arise due to (1) dispersion errors in the phase velocity of the wave, (2) the staggering in time between the electric and magnetic fields and between particle velocity and position and (3) errors in the time derivative in the momentum advance. Errors of the first two kinds are analyzed in detail. It is shown that by using field solvers with different k-space operators in Faraday's and Ampere's law, the dispersion errors and magnetic field time-staggering errors in the particle pusher can be simultaneously removed for electromagnetic waves moving primarily in a specific direction. The new algorithm was implemented into Osiris by using customized higher-order finite-difference operators. Schemes using the proposed solver in combination with different particle pushers are compared through PIC simulation. It is shown that the use of the new algorithm, together with an analytic particle pusher (assuming constant fields over a time step), can lead to accurate modeling of the motion of a single electron in an intense laser field with normalized vector potentials, eA/mc 2 , exceeding 10 4 for typical cell sizes and time steps.

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Section: Single Particle In a Laser Fieldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A new field solver for modeling of relativistic particle-laser interactions using the particle-in-cell algorithm

Miller

et al. 2021

Computer Physics Communications

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“…Several recent publications showed that applying the conventional PIC algorithm at a 0 1 might be problematic at least in certain regimes [5][6][7]. A specific regime of interest for this study is the one where a laser-irradiated electron is able to travel a longitudinal distance that significantly exceeds the laser wavelength λ.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Particle integrator for particle-in-cell simulations of ultra-high intensity laser-plasma interactions

Tangtartharakul,

Chen,

Arefiev

2021

Preprint

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Particle-in-cell codes are the most widely used simulation tools for kinetic studies of ultra-intense laser-plasma interactions. Using the motion of a single electron in a plane electromagnetic wave as a benchmark problem, we show surprising deterioration of the numerical accuracy of the PIC algorithm with increasing normalized wave amplitude for typical time-step and grid sizes. Two significant sources of errors are identified: strong acceleration near stopping points and the temporal field interpolation. We propose adaptive electron subcycling coupled with a third order temporal interpolation of the magnetic field and electric field as an efficient remedy that dramatically improves the accuracy of the particle integrator.

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“…Our ideas follow the same line with an extensive test of the algorithm in several geometric configurations. Gordon, Hafizi & Palastro (2017) discussed the problem of the Boris algorithm for ultra-strong fields. They used an unsplit covariant pusher and showed how to include radiation reaction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A relativistic particle pusher for ultra-strong electromagnetic fields

Pétri

2020

J. Plasma Phys.

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Kinetic plasma simulations are nowadays commonly used to study a wealth of nonlinear behaviours and properties in laboratory and space plasmas. In particular, in high-energy physics and astrophysics, the plasma usually evolves in ultra-strong electromagnetic fields produced by intense laser beams for the former or by rotating compact objects such as neutron stars and black holes for the latter. In these ultra-strong electromagnetic fields, the gyro-period is several orders of magnitude smaller than the time scale on which we desire to investigate the plasma evolution. Some approximations are required such as, for instance, artificially decreasing the electromagnetic field strength, which is certainly not satisfactory. The main flaw of this downscaling is that it cannot reproduce particle acceleration to ultra-relativistic speeds with a Lorentz factor above $\gamma \approx 10^3$ – $10^4$ . In this paper, we design a new algorithm able to catch particle motion and acceleration to a Lorentz factor of up to $10^{15}$ or even higher by using Lorentz boosts to special frames where the electric and magnetic field are parallel. Assuming that these fields are locally uniform in space and constant in time, we solve analytically the equation of motion in a tiny region smaller than the length scale of the spatial and temporal gradient of the field. This analytical integration of the orbit severely reduces the constraint on the time step, allowing us to use large time steps, avoiding resolving the ultra-high gyro-frequency. We performed simulations in ultra-strong spatially and time-dependent electromagnetic fields, showing that our particle pusher is able to follow accurately the exact analytical solution for very long times. This property is crucial to properly capture for instance lepton electrodynamics in electromagnetic waves produced by fast rotating neutron stars. We conclude with a simple implementation of our new pusher into a one-dimensional relativistic electromagnetic particle-in-cell code, testing it against plasma oscillations, two-stream instabilities and strongly magnetized relativistic shocks.

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Pushing particles in extreme fields

Cited by 8 publications

References 6 publications

A new field solver for modeling of relativistic particle-laser interactions using the particle-in-cell algorithm

A new field solver for modeling of relativistic particle-laser interactions using the particle-in-cell algorithm

Particle integrator for particle-in-cell simulations of ultra-high intensity laser-plasma interactions

A relativistic particle pusher for ultra-strong electromagnetic fields

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