Higher Order Current Deposition Schemes for Particle-in-Cell Plasma Simulations

Abstract

Particle-in-cell simulations provide important insight into the behavior of plasmas. However, simulating millions or even billions of particles and their interactions through the electric and magnetic fields over many time steps requires careful optimization to ensure a reasonable runtime. In this thesis we examine different algorithms for depositing current density onto an array, paying particular attention to efficiency and charge conservation. We find that a simple first order deposition method is significantly faster than others while still being charge conservative. We also show that particular care must be taken in designing higher order current deposition methods so that they obey Gauss’ law, and that higher order methods–although they cause less noise in the simulation and therefore require less smoothing–are too time-consuming to be practical choices.