Method to increase the simulation speed of particle-in-cell (PIC) code

Abstract

An algorithm for time reduction is implemented to an existing particle-in-cell (PIC) code to simulate plasma systems. The algorithm not only guarantees higher simulation speed than the original one but also conserves position, charge density, and energy of the system. Position and charge density are conserved by grouping particles in one cell and energy is conserved by dividing velocity space to several groups. Particle number is reduced by grouping particles that have similar magnitudes and directions of velocity to conserve the total system energy. The speed is improved from two to five times by reducing the simulation particle-numbers in the system. As the particle number is reduced, the stability of code is also improved. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.